Reisenman Carolina E, Riffell Jeffrey A, Hildebrand John G
Division of Neurobiology, Arizona Research Laboratories, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0077, USA.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009 Jul;1170:462-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.03875.x.
Olfactory cues play decisive roles in the lives of most insect species, providing information about biologically relevant resources, such as food, mates, and oviposition sites. The nocturnal moth Manduca sexta feeds on floral nectar from a variety of plants (and thus serves as a pollinator), but females oviposit almost exclusively on solanaceous plants, which they recognize on the basis of olfactory cues. Plants, however, respond to herbivory by releasing blends of volatiles that attract natural enemies of herbivores. Thus, oviposition behavior probably results from the sensory evaluation not only of attractive host plant volatiles but also of repellent volatiles that indicate the acceptability or inappropriateness, respectively, of host plants for the females' offspring. Here we describe results from chemical-ecological, neurophysiological, and behavioral experiments aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms that control oviposition behavior in M. sexta.
嗅觉线索在大多数昆虫物种的生命中起着决定性作用，提供有关生物相关资源的信息，如食物、配偶和产卵地点。夜行性蛾类烟草天蛾以多种植物的花蜜为食（因此充当传粉者），但雌性几乎只在茄科植物上产卵，它们通过嗅觉线索识别这些植物。然而，植物通过释放吸引食草动物天敌的挥发性混合物来应对食草行为。因此，产卵行为可能不仅源于对有吸引力的寄主植物挥发物的感官评估，还源于分别表明寄主植物对雌性后代是否适宜的驱避性挥发物的感官评估。在这里，我们描述了化学生态学、神经生理学和行为学实验的结果，旨在了解控制烟草天蛾产卵行为的神经机制。
