Golov Yiftach, Gurka Roi, Liberzon Alexander, Harari Ally
Department of Entomology, The Volcani Center, Rishon LeTsiyon, Israel.
Faculty of Exact Sciences, Porter School of Environment and Earth Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Mov Ecol. 2025 Mar 14;13(1):17. doi: 10.1186/s40462-025-00547-4.
In a chemosensing system, the local olfactory environment experienced by a foraging organism is defined as an odorscape. Using the nocturnal pink bollworm moth (Pectinophora gossypiella), we tested the combined effect of three biophysical aspects in its immediate odorscape to shed light on the coupling effects of biotic and abiotic factors on navigation performances of a nocturnal forager: i) the quality of the pheromone source, ii) the pheromone availability, and iii) the airflow characteristics. The navigation performance of the males was investigated using a wind tunnel assay equipped with 3D infrared high-speed cameras. The navigation performance of the males was analyzed using ethological and biomechanical parameters.The results of this work indicate that: (1) the biophysical factors have combined effects on the navigation performance of mate-searching males; (2) Natural and sexual selection play an important role in shaping the pheromone-mediated sensory performance of nocturnal male moths; herein, the role of natural selection overrides that of sexual selection; (3) During odor-mediated mate-finding navigation, the male moth applies a tradeoff decision-making process based on weighted information from the biological and physical characteristics of the odorscape. This decision-making process includes weighting the tradeoff between the cost involved in flying under different flow conditions, the availability of different odor sources, and their quality.
在化学传感系统中，觅食生物所经历的局部嗅觉环境被定义为气味景观。我们以夜间活动的红铃虫蛾（棉红铃虫）为研究对象，测试了其直接气味景观中三个生物物理方面的综合影响，以揭示生物和非生物因素对夜间觅食者导航性能的耦合作用：i）信息素源的质量，ii）信息素的可获得性，以及iii）气流特征。使用配备3D红外高速摄像机的风洞试验来研究雄性红铃虫蛾的导航性能。通过行为学和生物力学参数对雄性红铃虫蛾的导航性能进行分析。这项工作的结果表明：（1）生物物理因素对寻找配偶的雄性红铃虫蛾的导航性能具有综合影响；（2）自然选择和性选择在塑造夜间雄性蛾类信息素介导的感官性能方面发挥着重要作用；在此，自然选择的作用超过了性选择；（3）在气味介导的寻找配偶导航过程中，雄性蛾类会根据来自气味景观的生物学和物理特征的加权信息应用一种权衡决策过程。这个决策过程包括权衡在不同流动条件下飞行所涉及的成本、不同气味源的可获得性及其质量之间的权衡。
