| Title: | Chemical communication and host search in Galerucella leaf beetles |
| Author(s): | Fors L; Liblikas I; Andersson P; Borg-Karlson AK; Cabezas N; Mozuraitis R; Hamback PA; |
| Address: | "Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu, 50411 Estonia. Department of Chemistry, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. Department of Chemistry, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden ; Laboratory of Chemical and Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology, Nature Research Centre, Akademijos 2, 08412 Vilnius, Lithuania" |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00049-014-0174-1 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0937-7409 (Print) 1423-0445 (Electronic) 0937-7409 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Herbivore insects use a variety of search cues during host finding and mate recognition, including visual, gustatory, and olfactory stimuli, leaving multiple traits for evolution to act upon. However, information about differences or similarities in search pattern amongst closely related insect herbivore species is still scarce. Here, we study the production of and the response to pheromone in Galerucella (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) to investigate the beetles' search behaviour. Males of G. pusilla and G. calmariensis, two closely related species, are known to produce the aggregation pheromone dimethylfuran-lactone when feeding on their host plant, whereas no pheromones have been identified in other Galerucella species. We show that dimethylfuran-lactone is produced also by males of G. tenella, a species phylogenetically close to G. pusilla and G. calmariensis, whereas the more distantly related species G. lineola and G. sagittariae were not found to produce the same compound. To investigate the beetles' behavioural response to dimethylfuran-lactone, the pheromone was synthesized using a partly novel method and tested in olfactometers, showing that G. pusilla, G. calmariensis, and G. tenella were all attracted to the pheromone, whereas G. lineola and G. sagittariae did not respond. This suggests that the production of and the response to pheromone could be linked to the phylogenetic relatedness between the species" |
| Keywords: | Olfactometer Pheromone Plant-herbivore interactions Volatiles; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEFors, Lisa Liblikas, Ilme Andersson, Petter Borg-Karlson, Anna-Karin Cabezas, Nancy Mozuraitis, Raimondas Hamback, Peter A eng Switzerland 2015/01/20 Chemoecology. 2015; 25(1):33-45. doi: 10.1007/s00049-014-0174-1. Epub 2014 Oct 18" |
