Abstract
Female Cotesia glomerata (L.) relies on stimuli from herbivore-infested plants to select suitable hosts, but behavioral response to such stimuli is highly variable among individuals. This study investigates a genetic component of phenotypic variability in both short-range host-search and long-range host-location behaviors in the tritrophic system consisting of cabbage plants (Brassica oleracea L.), cabbage butterfly (Pieris brassicae L.) and the parasitoid, by comparing full-sib families established from a laboratory population and isofemale strains from a field population. Short-range host-search behaviors were examined within a Petri-dish test arena, and long-range host-location behaviors assessed in a wind tunnel. Significant differences among full-sib families were shown in the duration of walking on a plant-herbivore complex (i.e., a leaf section with two host caterpillars, their silk and feces) and searching off the complex, and the total time elapsed for wasps to locate a host larva after release into the test arena. Flight responses to and landing choices between the intact and the herbivore-infested plants were also significantly different among these families. Effects of families on both short-range host-search and long-range host-location behaviors were consistent, without significant influences of host larvae from which wasps emerged. The analysis of isofemale strains reveals that strains account for significant variation in the oriented flight response to herbivore-infested plants, and the “isofemale heritability” for this behavioral character is estimated as 0.447. The results suggest that genetic variation exists at different behavioral levels of the host-selection process in this parasitoid.
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Gu, H., Dorn, S. Genetic Variation in Behavioral Response to Herbivore-Infested Plants in the Parasitic Wasp, Cotesia glomerata (L.) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Journal of Insect Behavior 13, 141–156 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007723811573
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007723811573