Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on March 23, 2005
Chemical Senses 2005 30(4):337-343; doi:10.1093/chemse/bji028
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The Significance of Background Odour for an Egg Parasitoid to Detect Plants with Host Eggs
1 Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebener Straße 9, D-12163 Berlin, Germany 2 Present address: Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Binnenhaven 7, NL-6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands
Correspondence to be sent to: Monika Hilker, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebener Straße 9, D-12163 Berlin. E-mail: hilker{at}zedat.fu-berlin.de
Scots pine has been shown to produce a volatile bouquet that attracts egg parasitoids in response to oviposition of the herbivorous sawfly Diprion pini. Previous analyses of headspace volatiles of oviposition-induced pine twigs revealed only quantitative changes; in particular, the sesquiterpene (E)-ß-farnesene was emitted in significantly higher quantities by oviposition-induced pine. Here we investigated whether (E)-ß-farnesene attracted the egg parasitoid Chrysonotomyia ruforum. We tested the behavioural response of C. ruforum females to different concentrations of (E)-ß-farnesene. Egg parasitoids did not respond to this sesquiterpene at either concentration tested. However, they did respond significantly to (E)-ß-farnesene when this compound was offered in combination with the volatile blend emitted from pine twigs without eggs. This response was dependent on the applied concentration of (E)-ß-farnesene. Further bioassays with other components [(E)-ß-caryophyllene, 
-cadinene] of the odour blend of pine were conducted in combination with the volatile blend from egg-free pine as background odour. None of the compounds tested against the background of odour from an egg-free pine twig were attractive to the egg parasitoid. These results suggest that the egg parasitoids responded specifically to (E)-ß-farnesene, but only when this compound was experienced in the ‘right’ context, i.e. when contrasted with a background odour of non-oviposition-induced pine volatiles.
Key words: Diprion pini, egg deposition, (E)-ß-farnesene, induced defense, Pinus sylvestris, sesquiterpenes
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