Trichomes as dangerous lollipops: do lizards also use caterpillar body and frass odor to optimize their foraging?

ABSTRACT: When attacked by herbivores, plants produce toxic secondary metabolites that function as direct defenses, as well as indirect defenses that attract and reward predators of the offending herbivores. These indirect defenses include both nutritive rewards such as extra floral nectar, as well as informational rewards, such as the production and release of volatile compounds that betray the location of feeding herbivores to predators. Herbivory of Nicotiana attenuata by the tobacco hornworm (Manduca larvae) alters the volatile profiles of both the plant and larval headspace. Herbivory-elicited specific changes in the volatile profiles are detected by arthropod predators of Manduca larvae. The known predators that perceive volatile cues induced by Manduca herbivory of N. attenuata are insects th

SUBMITTER: Stork WF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3337173 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature