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Host plant selection by a monophagous herbivore is not mediated by quantitative changes in unique plant chemistry: Agonopterix alstroemeriana and Conium maculatum

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Abstract

Host plant selection by ovipositing females is a key process determining the success of phytophagous insects. In oligophagous lepidopterans, host-specific plant secondary chemicals are expected to be dominant factors governing oviposition behavior; distinctive compounds can serve as high-contrast signals that clearly differentiate confamilial hosts from non-hosts increasing the accuracy of host quality evaluation. Agonopterix alstroemeriana (Clerk) (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae) and Conium maculatum L. (Apiaceae) form an extremely specialized plant-herbivore system, with A. alstroemeriana monophagous on C. maculatum, a plant with few other insect herbivores at least in part due to its virtually unique capacity among plants to produce piperidine alkaloids. Here we have studied the response of A. alstroemeriana oviposition to unique host plant secondary metabolites, piperidine alkaloids, and widespread compounds, mono- and sesquiterpenes, in a concentration-dependent fashion. Rates of oviposition were negatively correlated with Z-ocimene concentrations. To confirm the deterrent properties of this monoterpene for A. alstroemeriana oviposition, we conducted a choice experiment using artificially damaged C. maculatum plants, with higher emission of volatiles, and undamaged control plants. Damaged plants were less preferred as oviposition sites compared to the controls. The lack of association between oviposition and piperidine alkaloids, defenses unique to Conium species, suggests that quantitative changes of these species-specific chemicals do not play a predominant role in host selection by the monophagous A. alstroemeriana.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Arthur R. Zangerl for his invaluable support and advice during this study. This work was supported by a Fulbright-MECD fellowship (Spain) awarded to E.C.

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Author notes

  1. Eva Castells

    Present address: Departament de Productes Naturals, Biologia Vegetal i Edafologia, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII s/n, 08028, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 320 Morrill Hall, 505 S Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Eva Castells & May R. Berenbaum

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  1. Eva Castells
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  2. May R. Berenbaum
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Correspondence to Eva Castells.

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Handling editor: Robert Glinwood.

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Castells, E., Berenbaum, M.R. Host plant selection by a monophagous herbivore is not mediated by quantitative changes in unique plant chemistry: Agonopterix alstroemeriana and Conium maculatum . Arthropod-Plant Interactions 2, 43–51 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-008-9032-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-008-9032-9

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