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Chem. Senses 28: 545-549, 2003
© Oxford University Press 2003

Parasitic Wasps Learn and Report Diverse Chemicals with Unique Conditionable Behaviors

D.M. Olson?, G.C. Rains1, T. Meiners2, K. Takasu3, M. Tertuliano?, J.H. Tumlinson4, F.L. Wäckers5 and W.J. Lewis?

? Crop Management and Research Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, PO Box 748, Tifton, GA 31793 1 Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA 31793, USA 2 Institut für Biologie, Angewandte Zoologie/Oekologie der Tiere, Freie Universität Berlin Haderslebener Strasse 9, D-12163, Germany 3 Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812–8581, Japan 4 Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, PO Box 14565, Gainesville, FL 32604, USA 5 Netherlands Institute of Ecology, NIOO-CTO, PO Box 40, 6666 ZG Heteren, The Netherlands

Correspondence to be sent to: W. Joe Lewis, Crop Management and Research Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, PO Box 748, Tifton, GA 31793, USA. e-mail: wjl{at}tifton.usda.gov

Parasitoids exploit numerous chemical cues to locate hosts and food. Whether they detect and learn chemicals foreign to their natural history has not been explored. We show that the parasitoid Microplitis croceipes can associate, with food or hosts, widely different chemicals outside their natural foraging encounters. When learned chemicals are subsequently detected, this parasitoid manifests distinct behaviors characteristic with expectations of food or host, commensurate with prior training. This flexibility of parasitoids to rapidly link diverse chemicals to resource needs and subsequently report them with recognizable behaviors offers new insights into their foraging adaptability, and provides a model for further dissection of olfactory learning related processes.

Key words: behavior, learning, Microplitis croceipes, olfaction


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