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Root and shoot jasmonic acid induction differently affects the foraging behavior of Cotesia glomerata under semi-field conditions

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Abstract

Plants can accumulate and release defensive chemicals by activating various signaling pathways when they are damaged by herbivores or pathogens. The jasmonic acid pathway is activated after damage by chewing herbivores. Here we used jasmonic acid (JA) as an exogenous elicitor to induce feral cabbage plants. In this study, the effects of root JA (RJA) and shoot JA (SJA) induction on the foraging behavior of Cotesia glomerata, a parasitoid of the large cabbage white butterfly Pieris brassicae, was investigated under semi-field conditions. In all combinations of differently induced plants (RJA, SJA and control plants), the percentages of shoot induced plants that were visited by at least one wasp were significantly higher than those of controls or root induced plants during 3 h of foraging. Consequently, parasitism rates of P. brassicae on shoot-JA induced plants were significantly higher than on plants induced with JA to the roots or control plants in all tests. However, this behavioral preference was not reflected in the allocation of offspring. The clutch sizes of C. glomerata eggs on control, root induced and shoot induced plants were not significantly different from each other in two-choice or three-choice experiments, but did differ with clutch size in the two-choice experiment of uninduced control plants versus SJA. This semi-field study helps to further understand the choice behavior and preferences of parasitoids in natural multitrophic communities in which plants induced with root or shoot herbivores occur together.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Roel Wagenaar and Gregor Disveld (NIOO-KNAW) for their assistance with plant rearing. NM van Dam was funded by a NWO VIDI grant, no. 864-02-001, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, and BL Qiu is granted by the China National Natural Science Foundation (30871678) and China Scholarship Programs no. 2006-3036.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, 510640, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Bao-Li Qiu

  2. Netherlands Institute of Ecology, P.O. Box 50, 6700 AB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Bao-Li Qiu, Nicole M. van Dam, Jeffrey A. Harvey & Louise E. M. Vet

  3. Department of Ecogenomics, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Nicole M. van Dam

  4. Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University and Research Center, P.O. Box 8031, 6700 EH, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Louise E. M. Vet

Authors
  1. Bao-Li Qiu
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  2. Nicole M. van Dam
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  3. Jeffrey A. Harvey
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  4. Louise E. M. Vet
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Correspondence to Bao-Li Qiu.

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Handling Editor: Torsten Meiners

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Qiu, BL., van Dam, N.M., Harvey, J.A. et al. Root and shoot jasmonic acid induction differently affects the foraging behavior of Cotesia glomerata under semi-field conditions. BioControl 57, 387–395 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-011-9410-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-011-9410-6

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