Hyperparasitoids exploit herbivore-induced plant volatiles during host location to assess host quality and non-host identity

Antonino Cusumano (Corresponding author), Jeffrey A. Harvey, Marcel Dicke, Erik H. Poelman

Research output: Contribution to journal/periodicalArticleScientificpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)
139 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Although consumers often rely on chemical information to optimize their foraging strategies, it is poorly understood how top carnivores above the third trophic level find resources in heterogeneous environments. Hyperparasitoids are a common group of organisms in the fourth trophic level that lay their eggs in or on the body of other parasitoid hosts. Such top carnivores use herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) to find caterpillars containing parasitoid host larvae. Hyperparasitoids forage in complex environments where hosts of different quality may be present alongside non-host parasitoid species, each of which can develop in multiple herbivore species. Because both the identity of the herbivore species and its parasitization status can affect the composition of HIPV emission, hyperparasitoids encounter considerable variation in HIPVs during host location. Here, we combined laboratory and field experiments to investigate the role of HIPVs in host selection of hyperparasitoids that search for hosts in a multi-parasitoid multi-herbivore context. In a wild Brassica oleracea-based food web, the hyperparasitoid Lysibia nana preferred HIPVs emitted in response to caterpillars parasitized by the gregarious host Cotesia glomerata over the non-host Hyposoter ebeninus. However, no plant-mediated discrimination occurred between the solitary host C. rubecula and the non-host H. ebeninus. Under both laboratory and field conditions, hyperparasitoid responses were not affected by the herbivore species (Pieris brassicae or P. rapae) in which the three primary parasitoid species developed. Our study shows that HIPVs are an important source of information within multitrophic interaction networks allowing hyperparasitoids to find their preferred hosts in heterogeneous environments.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)699-709
Number of pages11
JournalOecologia
Volume189
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • national

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Hyperparasitoids exploit herbivore-induced plant volatiles during host location to assess host quality and non-host identity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this