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Chemical Ecology of the host searching behavior in an Egg Parasitoid: are Common Chemical Cues exploited to locate hosts in Taxonomically Distant Plant Species?

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Abstract

Parasitoids are known to exploit volatile cues emitted by plants after herbivore attack to locate their hosts. Feeding and oviposition of a polyphagous herbivore can induce the emission of odor blends that differ among distant plant species, and parasitoids have evolved an incredible ability to discriminate them and locate their hosts relying on olfactive cues. We evaluated the host searching behavior of the egg parasitoid Cosmocomoidea annulicornis (Ogloblin) (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) in response to odors emitted by two taxonomically distant host plants, citrus and Johnson grass, after infestation by the sharpshooter Tapajosa rubromarginata (Signoret) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), vector of Citrus Variegated Chlorosis. Olfactory response of female parasitoids toward plants with no herbivore damage and plants with feeding damage, oviposition damage, and parasitized eggs was tested in a Y-tube olfactometer. In addition, volatiles released by the two host plant species constitutively and under herbivore attack were characterized. Females of C. annulicornis were able to detect and significantly preferred plants with host eggs, irrespectively of plant species. However, wasps were unable to discriminate between plants with healthy eggs and those with eggs previously parasitized by conspecifics. Analysis of plant volatiles induced after sharpshooter attack showed only two common volatiles between the two plant species, indole and β-caryophyllene. Our results suggest that this parasitoid wasp uses common chemical cues released by many different plants after herbivory at long range and, once on the plant, other more specific chemical cues could trigger the final decision to oviposit.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by PICT 2015 1147 and PICT 2019 1309 (FONCYT, Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Argentina). We would like to thank “Vivero Lules” for providing the citrus plants used in all assays. Carolina Manzano thanks CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina) for the scholarship granted.

Funding

This work was supported by PICT 2015 1147 and PICT 2019 1309 (FONCYT, Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Argentina).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PROIMI - CONICET, Av. Belgrano y Pje. Caseros (T4001MVB), Tucumán, Argentina

    C MANZANO, E LUFT ALBARRACIN, EG VIRLA & MV COLL ARÁOZ

  2. Centro de Investigaciones en Hidratos de Carbono, CIHIDECAR-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    PC FERNANDEZ

  3. Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martin 4453, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    PC FERNANDEZ

  4. Facultad de Agronomía, Zootecnia y Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Av. Kirchner 1.900, Tucumán, Argentina

    JG HILL

  5. Instituto de Entomología, Fundación Miguel Lillo. Miguel Lillo 251, (4000), Tucumán, Argentina

    EG VIRLA

  6. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e IML, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 205, (4000), Tucumán, Argentina

    MV COLL ARÁOZ

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  1. C MANZANO
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. CM and MVCA wrote the manuscript. CM and PCF carried out the experiments. CM and JGH conducted insect field collections and statistical analyses. ELA, EGV, MVCA, and PCF supervised the project, revised the manuscript, and secured funding. All authors helped shape the research, analysis and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to MV COLL ARÁOZ.

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MANZANO, C., FERNANDEZ, P., HILL, J. et al. Chemical Ecology of the host searching behavior in an Egg Parasitoid: are Common Chemical Cues exploited to locate hosts in Taxonomically Distant Plant Species?. J Chem Ecol 48, 650–659 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-022-01373-3

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