Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae
Males of a variety of insects transfer an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone to females during mating that renders them less attractive to conspecific males. In cabbage white butterflies, the transfer of an anti-aphrodisiac can result in the unwanted attraction of tiny egg parasitoid wasps of the genus Tric...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Springer-Verlag
2011
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3078301/ |
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pubmed-3078301 |
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pubmed-30783012011-05-26 Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae Huigens, Martinus E. de Swart, Erik Mumm, Roland Rapid Communication Males of a variety of insects transfer an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone to females during mating that renders them less attractive to conspecific males. In cabbage white butterflies, the transfer of an anti-aphrodisiac can result in the unwanted attraction of tiny egg parasitoid wasps of the genus Trichogramma that hitch-hike with mated female butterflies to a host plant where they parasitize the freshly laid butterfly eggs. Here, we show that the anti-aphrodisiac benzyl cyanide (BC) of the large cabbage white Pieris brassicae is depleted by frequent display of the mate-refusal posture that signals a female’s unreceptivity to mating. This depletion of BC is ecologically important because it results in a reduced risk of attracting the hitch-hiking egg parasitoid Trichogramma brassicae to mated female butterflies over time since mating. Our results indicate for the first time that a reduction in anti-aphrodisiac titre in mated females due to frequent adoption of the mate-refusal posture is beneficial to both mated females and males particularly when parasitoid pressure is high. Springer-Verlag 2011-03-31 2011-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3078301/ /pubmed/21452001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-9935-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2011 |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Huigens, Martinus E. de Swart, Erik Mumm, Roland |
| spellingShingle |
Huigens, Martinus E. de Swart, Erik Mumm, Roland Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae |
| author_facet |
Huigens, Martinus E. de Swart, Erik Mumm, Roland |
| author_sort |
Huigens, Martinus E. |
| title |
Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae |
| title_short |
Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae |
| title_full |
Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae |
| title_fullStr |
Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Risk of Egg Parasitoid Attraction Depends on Anti-aphrodisiac Titre in the Large Cabbage White Butterfly Pieris brassicae |
| title_sort |
risk of egg parasitoid attraction depends on anti-aphrodisiac titre in the large cabbage white butterfly pieris brassicae |
| description |
Males of a variety of insects transfer an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone to females during mating that renders them less attractive to conspecific males. In cabbage white butterflies, the transfer of an anti-aphrodisiac can result in the unwanted attraction of tiny egg parasitoid wasps of the genus Trichogramma that hitch-hike with mated female butterflies to a host plant where they parasitize the freshly laid butterfly eggs. Here, we show that the anti-aphrodisiac benzyl cyanide (BC) of the large cabbage white Pieris brassicae is depleted by frequent display of the mate-refusal posture that signals a female’s unreceptivity to mating. This depletion of BC is ecologically important because it results in a reduced risk of attracting the hitch-hiking egg parasitoid Trichogramma brassicae to mated female butterflies over time since mating. Our results indicate for the first time that a reduction in anti-aphrodisiac titre in mated females due to frequent adoption of the mate-refusal posture is beneficial to both mated females and males particularly when parasitoid pressure is high. |
| publisher |
Springer-Verlag |
| publishDate |
2011 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3078301/ |
| _version_ |
1611449607636647936 |