Verschut Thomas A, Blažytė-Čereškienė Laima, Apšegaitė Violeta, Mozūraitis Raimondas, Hambäck Peter A
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences Stockholm University Stockholm Sweden.
Laboratory of Chemical and Behavioural Ecology Institute of Ecology Nature Research Centre Vilnius Lithuania.
Ecol Evol. 2017 Feb 26;7(7):2079-2090. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2826. eCollection 2017 Apr.
Many insects face the challenge to select oviposition sites in heterogeneous environments where biotic and abiotic factors can change over time. One way to deal with this complexity is to use sensory experiences made during developmental stages to locate similar habitats or hosts in which larval development can be maximized. While various studies have investigated oviposition preference and larval performance relationships in insects, they have largely overlooked that sensory experiences made during the larval stage can affect such relationships. We addressed this issue by determining the role of natal experience on oviposition preference and larval performance relationships in a tritrophic system consisting of feeding on the two host plants and and its larval parasitoid . We firstly determined whether differences in host-derived olfactory information could lead to divergent host selection, and secondly, whether host preference could result in higher larval performance based on the natal origin of the insects. Our results showed that the natal origin and the quality of the current host are both important aspects in oviposition preference and larval performance relationships. While we found a positive relationship between preference and performance for natal beetles, natal larvae showed no such relationship and developed better on . Additionally, the host selection by the parasitoid was mainly affected by the natal origin, while its performance was higher on larvae. With this study, we showed that the relationship between oviposition preference and larval performance depends on the interplay between the natal origin of the female and the quality of the current host. However, without incorporating the full tritrophic context of these interactions, their implication in insect fitness and potential adaptation cannot be fully understood.
许多昆虫面临着在异质环境中选择产卵地点的挑战，在这种环境中，生物和非生物因素可能随时间变化。应对这种复杂性的一种方法是利用发育阶段获得的感官经验来定位相似的栖息地或宿主，以使幼虫发育最大化。虽然各种研究调查了昆虫的产卵偏好与幼虫表现之间的关系，但它们在很大程度上忽略了幼虫阶段获得的感官经验会影响这种关系。我们通过确定出生经历在一个由 以两种寄主植物为食 以及 及其幼虫寄生蜂 组成的三营养系统中对产卵偏好和幼虫表现关系的作用，来解决这个问题。我们首先确定宿主衍生的嗅觉信息差异是否会导致不同的宿主选择，其次，基于昆虫的出生来源，宿主偏好是否会导致更高的幼虫表现。我们的结果表明，出生来源和当前宿主的质量都是产卵偏好和幼虫表现关系中的重要方面。虽然我们发现出生于 的甲虫的偏好与表现之间存在正相关，但出生于 的幼虫没有这种关系，并且在 上发育得更好。此外，寄生蜂的宿主选择主要受出生来源影响，而其在 幼虫上的表现更高。通过这项研究，我们表明产卵偏好和幼虫表现之间的关系取决于雌性的出生来源与当前宿主质量之间的相互作用。然而，如果不纳入这些相互作用的完整三营养背景，就无法充分理解它们对昆虫适应性和潜在适应性的影响。
