Butterfly anti-aphrodisiac & wasps

[Mike Quinn]

Interesting abstract, be sure to check out Fig. 1...

Mike Quinn, Austin
_________________
Texas Entomology
www.texasento.net

---FWD---

Nature 433, 704 (17 February 2005)

Chemical communication: Butterfly anti-aphrodisiac lures parasitic wasps

NINA E. FATOUROS*†, MARTINUS E. HUIGENS†, JOOP J. A. VAN LOON†, MARCEL
DICKE† & MONIKA HILKER*

* Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, 12163 Berlin, Germany
† Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8031, 6700 EH
Wageningen, The Netherlands

hilker at zedat.fu-berlin.de

To locate their hosts, parasitic wasps can 'eavesdrop' on the intraspecific
chemical communications of their insect hosts. Here we describe an example
in which the information exploited by the parasitic wasp Trichogramma
brassicae is a butterfly anti-aphrodisiac that is passed from male to female
Pieris brassicae butterflies during mating, to render them less attractive
to conspecific males. When the tiny wasp detects the odour of a mated female
butterfly, it rides on her (Fig. 1) to her egg-laying sites and then
parasitizes the freshly laid eggs. If this fascinating strategy is
widespread in nature, it could severely constrain the evolution of sexual
communication between hosts.

Figure 1 Trichogramma brassicae wasp (roughly 0.5 mm long), hitches a lift
on a mated, female butterfly (Pieris brassicae).
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v433/n7027/fig_tab/433704a_F1.html



 
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