1. Prey sex pheromone as kairomone for a new group of predators (Coleoptera: Dasytidae, Aplocnemus spp.) of pine bast scales
- Author
-
R. Constantin, José Carlos Franco, Manuela Branco, Hervé Jactel, I. van Halder, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés (BioGeCo), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Bordeaux (UB), Independent, and We want to thank Pierre Menassieu, Fabrice Vetillard and the French Forest Health Department for their help with the field work in Corsica, and Catarina Sousa, Maria Bernat, Filipa Martins, Catia Figueiredo and Joana Fernandes for their help with the field work in Portugal. Gianfranco Liberti helped us by sending several papers on the ecology and biology of Aplocnemus species. We are grateful to Martine Lettere, from the Unit of Phytopharmacy and Chemical Mediators, INRA, Versailles (France) for supplying M. feytaudi pheromone lures. This work was partially supported by FCT - Fundacao para Ciencia e Tecnologia (Portugal) through the Pluriannual Program. The study in Corsica was supported by the French Ministry of Agriculture and the Regional Community of Corsica.
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Male ,matsucoccus ,media_common.quotation_subject ,[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,Insect ,entomology ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Predation ,Hemiptera ,prey searching ,Animals ,Sex Attractants ,Ecosystem ,media_common ,Larva ,biology ,Portugal ,Ecology ,business.industry ,kairomone ,Pest control ,General Medicine ,Feeding Behavior ,biology.organism_classification ,aplocnemus ,Pinus ,Coleoptera ,010602 entomology ,Dodecanol ,Insect Science ,Kairomone ,Sex pheromone ,Predatory Behavior ,Pheromone ,Female ,France ,Seasons ,business ,dasytidae ,Agronomy and Crop Science - Abstract
During the last decades, an increasing number of predators were found to use specific prey pheromones as chemical cues. Beyond its ecological relevance, this knowledge has practical applications on insect conservation and pest control. In this study, we present first evidence that two species of the family Dasytidae (Coleoptera)Aplocnemus brevisRosenhauer andA. raymondiSainte-Claire Deville use the sex pheromone of the pine bast scaleMatsucoccus feytaudiDucasse (Hemiptera: Matsucoccidae) as kairomone to locate this prey. The feeding habits and biology ofAplocnemusspecies are practically unknown. In the laboratory, the adults ofAplocnemussp. acceptedM. feytaudiegg masses as food source as well as other diets. Females represented more than 90% ofAplocnemussp. attracted to the pheromone lures. We believe that females use this olfactory cue to locate suitable places for oviposition and that larvae are the predators ofMatsucoccus. This study further demonstrates that the response to the kairomone elicited short prey searching times, about 23% of the individuals appeared less than 12 min after lure exposure, being consistent with the hypothesis of prey specialization. Habitat and geographical distribution predict an ancestral association ofA. breviswithM. feytaudiand ofA. raymondiwithM. pini. Nevertheless, a recent prey shift ofA. raymondito the invasiveM. feytaudiin Corsica is in progress.
- Published
- 2011