Host plant odors represent immiscible information entities - blend composition and concentration matter in hawkmoths.

ABSTRACT: Host plant choice is of vital importance for egg laying herbivorous insects that do not exhibit brood care. Several aspects, including palatability, nutritional quality and predation risk, have been found to modulate host preference. Olfactory cues are thought to enable host location. However, experimental data on odor features that allow choosing among alternative hosts while still in flight are not available. It has previously been shown that M. sexta females prefer Datura wrightii compared to Nicotiana attenuata. The bouquet of the latter is more intense and contains compounds typically emitted by plants after feeding-damage to attract the herbivore's enemies. In this wind tunnel study, we offered female gravid hawkmoths (Manduca sexta) odors from these two ecologically relevant, attrac

SUBMITTER: Spathe A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3792911 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature