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Can plants betray the presence of multiple herbivore species to predators and parasitoids? The role of learning in phytochemical information networks

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  • Relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across different scales
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Ecological Research

Abstract

In response to feeding by phytophagous arthropods, plants emit volatile chemicals. This is shown to be an active physiological response of the plant and the released chemicals are therefore called herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPV). One of the supposed functions of HIPV for the plant is to attract carnivorous natural enemies of herbivores. Depending on which plant and herbivore species interact, blends of HIPV show qualitative and quantitative variation. Hence, one may ask whether this allows the natural enemies to discriminate between volatiles from plants infested by herbivore species that are either suitable or unsuitable as a food source for the natural enemy. Another question is whether natural enemies can also recognise HIPV when two or more herbivore species that differ in suitability as a food source simultaneously attack the same plant species. By reviewing the literature we show that arthropod predators and parasitoids can tell different HIPV blends apart in several cases of single plant–single herbivore systems and even in single plant–multiple herbivore systems. Yet, there are also cases where predators and parasitoids do not discriminate or discriminate only after having learned the association between HIPV and herbivores that are either suitable or non-suitable as a source of food. In this case, suitable herbivores may profit from colonising plants that are already infested by another non-suitable herbivore. The resulting temporal or partial refuge may have important population dynamical consequences, as such refuges have been shown to stabilise otherwise unstable predator–prey models of the Lotka-Volterra or Nicholson-Bailey type.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by CREST of JST (Japan Science and Technology Corporation), and by the Grant for the Biodiversity Research of the 21st Century COE (A14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, 2-509-3 Hirano, Otsu 520-2113, Japan

    Junji Takabayashi & Kaori Shiojiri

  2. Section Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94084, 1090 GB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Maurice W. Sabelis, Arne Janssen & Michiel van Wijk

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  1. Junji Takabayashi
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  2. Maurice W. Sabelis
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  3. Arne Janssen
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  4. Kaori Shiojiri
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  5. Michiel van Wijk
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Correspondence to Junji Takabayashi.

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Takabayashi, J., Sabelis, M.W., Janssen, A. et al. Can plants betray the presence of multiple herbivore species to predators and parasitoids? The role of learning in phytochemical information networks. Ecol Res 21, 3–8 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-005-0129-7

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