| Title: | Assessment of patch quality by ladybirds: role of larval tracks |
| Author(s): | Doumbia M; Hemptinne JL; Dixon AF; |
| Address: | "Faculte universitaire des Sciences agronomiques de Gembloux, Unite de Zoologie generale et appliquee, Passage des Deportes 2, B-5030 Gembloux, Belgium e-mail: hemptinne@fsagx.ac.be, , , , , , BE. School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK, , , , , , GB" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1432-1939 (Electronic) 0029-8549 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Gravid females of the two-spot ladybird, Adalia bipunctata (L.), were deterred from ovipositing when kept in petri dishes that had previously contained conspecific larvae but not conspecific adults, or the larvae of another two species of ladybird, Adalia decempunctata (L.) and Coccinella septempunctata L. The deterrent effect was density dependent and mediated via a chloroform-soluble contact pheromone present in the larval tracks. Similarly, gravid females of C. septempunctata were deterred from ovipositing by conspecific larval tracks and chloroform extracts of these tracks, but not by the tracks or extracts of tracks of A. bipunctata larvae. That is, in ladybirds the larvae produce a species-specific oviposition-deterring pheromone. In the field, the incidence of egg cannibalism in ladybirds increases very rapidly with the density of conspecific eggs or larvae per unit area. Thus, in responding to the species specific oviposition deterring pheromone female ladybirds reduce the risk of their eggs being eaten and spread their offspring more equally between patches" |
| Keywords: | Coccinellidae Key words Cannibalism Larval tracks Oviposition-deterring pheromone Patch quality; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEDoumbia, M Hemptinne, J-L Dixon, A F G eng Germany 1998/01/01 Oecologia. 1998 Jan; 113(2):197-202. doi: 10.1007/s004420050368" |
