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Mother knows best: plant polyploidy affects feeding and oviposition preference of the alligator weed biological control agent, Agasicles hygrophila

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Abstract

Alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides (Martius) Grisebach) is an amphibious invasive plant native to South America. It is an allopolyploid that, in Argentina, possess two cytotypes, tetraploids and hexaploids. In the exotic range, the plant is biologically controlled with flea beetle Agasicles hygrophila Selman and Vogt but with different levels of success. The genotype of host plant is an important factor that needs to be considered in biological control programs. We studied how alligator weed ploidy level affects the oviposition preferences of A. hygrophila and its relation with female feeding preference, egg survival and larval performance in its native range. Females recognized the different ploidy levels of alligator weed and preferred to lay eggs on hexaploids than tetraploids. This choice positively affected larval performance and may be explained by the preference–performance hypothesis in this case for different plant cytotypes. Polyploidy should be considered in evaluating and prioritising biological control agents.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Eduardo Greizerstein (Universidad de Lomas de Zamora) and Florencia Galdeano (Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste) for helping us with ploidy level determination. We also appreciate Guadalupe Traversa, Cristian Battagliotti, Cristina Hernández and Ana Faltlhauser for helping us in the field. We also thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions that really improved the original manuscript. This study was financially supported by funds from CONICET (Subsidio extraordinario R.3646/14 and PIP 2014-00331) and Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT 2015-1910).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental, UNSAM, San Martín, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pamela Krug

  2. CONICET-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pamela Krug & Alejandro J. Sosa

  3. FUEDEI-Fundación para el Estudio de Especies Invasivas, Hurlingham, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Alejandro J. Sosa

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  1. Pamela Krug
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Correspondence to Alejandro J. Sosa.

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Krug, P., Sosa, A.J. Mother knows best: plant polyploidy affects feeding and oviposition preference of the alligator weed biological control agent, Agasicles hygrophila. BioControl 64, 623–632 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-019-09959-9

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