The chemical ecology of armyworms

Moths of the genus Spodoptera are economically important pest insects. The necessity to develop novel control strategies which may be included in integrated pest management schemes has led to the study of chemical communication in several species within the genus. The polyphagous nature of most Spodoptera species makes it an interesting model to study the way in which different odor profiles are processed and interpreted by the insect brain and how this reflects upon the behavior and ecological interactions which may be of importance in agricultural systems. As such, armyworms have become a model organism in olfactory insect chemical ecology. Here, I attempt to give an overview of what is known about Spodptera chemical ecology to date and present perspectives and directions for future research

Odorant receptor phylogeny confirms conserved channels for sex pheromone and host plant signals in tortricid moths

The search for mates and food is mediated by volatile chemicals. Insects sense food odorants and sex pheromones through odorant receptors (ORs) and pheromone receptors (PRs), which are expressed in olfactory sensory neurons. Molecular phylogenetics of ORs, informed by behavioral and functional data, generates sound hypotheses for the identification of semiochemicals driving olfactory behavior. Studying orthologous receptors and their ligands across taxa affords insights into the role of chemical communication in reproductive isolation and phylogenetic divergence. The female sex pheromone of green budworm mothHedya nubiferana(Lepidoptera, Totricidae) is a blend of two unsaturated acetates, only a blend of both elicits male attraction. Females produce in addition codlemone, which is the sex pheromone of another tortricid, codling mothCydia pomonella. Codlemone also attracts green budworm moth males. Concomitantly, green budworm and codling moth males are attracted to the host plant volatile pear ester. A congruent behavioral response to the same pheromone and plant volatile in two tortricid species suggests co-occurrence of dedicated olfactory channels. In codling moth, one PR is tuned to both compounds, the sex pheromone codlemone and the plant volatile pear ester. Our phylogenetic analysis finds that green budworm moth expresses an orthologous PR gene. Shared ancestry, and high levels of amino acid identity and sequence similarity, in codling and green budworm moth PRs offer an explanation for parallel attraction of both species to the same compounds. A conserved olfactory channel for a sex pheromone and a host plant volatile substantiates the alliance of social and habitat signals in insect chemical communication. Field attraction assays confirm that in silico investigations of ORs afford powerful predictions for an efficient identification of behavior-modifying semiochemicals, for an improved understanding of the mechanisms of host plant attraction in insect herbivores and for the further development of sustainable insect control

Social and environmental olfactory signals mediate insect behavioral ecology and evolution

Odors are essential in mediating insect reproductive behavior. Environmental odors help insects locate suitable feeding or egg-laying sites and avoid suboptimal hosts or dangerous habitats. Sex pheromones, on the other hand, are responsible for mate finding and elicit courtship and mating. Although pheromones elicit stereotypical behaviors on their own, they are embedded in a background of environmental odors in nature. Using the cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis, and the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, I studied the effect of blending environmentally relevant odors with pheromones on insect behavior. For the cotton leafworm, we first developed an attractive cotton volatile blend. We next used this blend to determine the physiological effect of DMNT, a strong behavioral antagonist, on the cotton leafworm olfactory system. I then blended the individual volatiles and volatile blends with an incomplete and complete pheromone. The combination of cotton volatiles and the complete pheromone elicits attraction. Deviations from this optimum, either by changing the pheromone composition or the cotton volatile blend strongly reduces male S. littoralis attraction. I then used the fruit fly to study the effect of food (vinegar) and habitat (yeast) volatiles on fly attraction towards pheromones. Starvation affects attraction towards a blend of vinegar and a male produced pheromone in a sexually dimorphic way. We next describe a novel female fruit fly pheromone and the odorant receptor involved in its perception. Finally, we show that vinegar and yeast volatiles interact in a different manner with male and female produced pheromones, suggesting that although vinegar is a good feeding cue, even in the presence of pheromones, it is not an appropriate mate finding cue. My findings suggest that pheromones and host volatiles function as a single unit that mediates insect behavior, rather than as individual components. As such the olfactory cues that mediate mate finding in insects are under both natural and sexual selection simultaneously, which has strong implications for insect speciation and evolution

Microbial volatiles and their potential in the biological control of plant pathogens and insects

peer reviewe

Data from: Plant odour and sex pheromone are integral elements of specific mate recognition in an insect herbivore

Specific mate recognition relies on the chemical senses in most animals, and especially in nocturnal insects. Two signal types mediate premating olfactory communication in terrestrial habitats: sex pheromones, which blend into an atmosphere of plant odorants. We show that host plant volatiles affect the perception of sex pheromone in males of the African cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis and that pheromone and plant volatiles are not perceived as independent messages. In clean air, S. littoralis males are attracted to single synthetic pheromone components or even the pheromone of a sibling species, Oriental cotton leafworm S. litura. Presence of host plant volatiles, however, reduces the male response to deficient or heterospecific pheromone signals. That plant cues enhance discrimination of sex pheromone quality confirms the idea that specific mate recognition in noctuid moths has evolved in concert with adaptation to host plants. Shifts in either female host preference or sex pheromone biosynthesis give rise to new communication channels that have the potential to initiate or contribute to reproductive isolation

borrero R script

R script used for statistical analysi

borrero wind tunnel data

Data file (Microsoft Excel) contains 2 sheets. Sheet #1 ("treatments") provides a number (0 thru 68) for odour sources used for attraction of Spodoptera littoralis males in a wind tunnel. Sheet #2 ("results") shows, for each treatment, upwind flight attraction ("1") vs no attraction ("0) in 50 males

mchpv

input file for statistical analysis (see also file "borrero R script - legend"

hpv

input file for statistical analysis (see also file "borrero R script - legend"