Publications - Faculty - Recently Submitted Faculty Publications 2008
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Stelinski - Behavorial Ecology
Inter-ordinal recognition of an oviposition-deterring pheromone
L. L. Stelinski, C. Rodriguez-Saona, and W. L. Meyer
Abstract: Both phytophagous and parasitic insects deposit marking pheromones following egg-laying which inform conspecifics of a previously-utilized host of reduced suitability. The production and recognition of oviposition marking pheromones benefits both the sender and the receiver where food resources are limited and occupation by more than one individual results in a competition resulting in reduced survivorship for both the first and subsequent larvae. Although oviposition marking pheromones typically function intraspecifically, there are a few examples of interspecific recognition among species in different genera and among species in different families. The blueberry maggot fly, Rhagoletis mendax Curran, deposits eggs individually into blueberry fruit and subsequently deposits a pheromone which reduces acceptance of fruit for oviposition by conspecifics. Thereafter, female Diachasma alloeum (Muesebeck) wasps parasitize a proportion of larval R. mendax developing within blueberries and also deposit an oviposition marking pheromone that informs conspecific females of that previously utilized host. Behavioral studies were conducted testing the hypothesis that the oviposition marking pheromone of the parasitic wasp modifies the behavior of its host fly given that both species mark and inspect the same fruit substrate during the oviposition process. We provide data showing that gravid female R. mendax flies will reject fruit previously marked by D. alloeum wasps. The wasps, however, do not avoid oviposition into fruit marked by the fly. Rhagoletis mendax females required previous experience with D. alloeum’s oviposition marking pheromone before it modified their oviposition behavior. Avoidance of both species’ marking pheromones should be evolutionarily advantageous for R. mendax females since both indicate a previously exploited and unsuitable host resource. To categorize this inter-ordinal function of an oviposition marking pheromone, we would like to propose the term xenodeictic for this effect.
