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Chemical Senses Advance Access published online on March 23, 2005

Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bji028
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Accepted February 23, 2005

Article

The Significance of Background Odour for an Egg Parasitoid to Detect Plants with Host Eggs

Roland Mumm 1 and Monika Hilker 2*

1 Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebener Straße 9, D-12163 Berlin, Germany; Present address: Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Binnenhaven 7, NL-6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands
2 Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebener Straße 9, D-12163 Berlin, Germany

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Monika Hilker, E-mail: hilker{at}zedat.fu-berlin.de


   Abstract

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)-{beta}-farnesene was emitted in significantly higher quantities by oviposition-induced pine. Here we investigated whether (E)-{beta}-farnesene attracted the egg parasitoid Chrysonotomyia ruforum. We tested the behavioural response of C. ruforum females to different concentrations of (E)-{beta}-farnesene. Egg parasitoids did not respond to this sesquiterpene at either concentration tested. However, they did respond significantly to (E)-{beta}-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)-{beta}-farnesene. Further bioassays with other components [(E)-{beta}-caryophyllene, {delta}-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)-{beta}-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.

Keywords: Diprion pini; egg deposition; (E)-{beta}-farnesene; induced defense; Pinus sylvestris; sesquiterpenes.
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