Insects (2020) 11 (5 - 271)

Kim Bell, Natalia Naranjo-Guevara, Rafaela C. dos Santos, Richard Meadow and José M.S. Bento (2020)
Predatory earwigs are attracted by herbivore-induced plant volatiles linked with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria
Insects 11 (5 - 271)
Abstract: Plant-associated microbes may induce plant defenses against herbivores. Plants, in turn, can attract natural enemies, such as predators, using herbivore-induced plant volatiles. Intricate communication occurs between microorganisms, plants, and insects. Given that many aspects related to mechanisms involved in this symbiotic system remain unknown, we evaluated how beneficial soil-borne microorganisms can affect the interactions between plants, herbivores, and natural enemies. For this study, we established a multitrophic system composed of the predatory earwig Doru luteipes (Dermaptera: Forficulidae), arugula (Eruca sativa, Brassicaceae) as the host plant, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) larvae as a specialist herbivore, Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) larvae as a generalist herbivore, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens as the plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), in a series of nocturnal olfactometry experiments. By assessing earwig preference towards herbivore-induced and PGPR-inoculated plants in different combinations, we showed that the interaction between rhizobacteria, plants, and herbivores can affect the predatory earwig's behavior. Furthermore, we observed a synergistic effect in which earwigs were attracted by plants that presented as PGPR inoculated and herbivore damaged, for both specialist and generalist herbivores. Our findings help fill the important knowledge gap regarding multitrophic interactions and should provide useful guidelines for their application to agricultural fields.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
(original language: English)
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Database assignments for author(s): Richard Meadow

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution
environment/habitat manipulation

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Plutella xylostella	Rocket (Eruca)	Brazil (south)
	Spodoptera frugiperda	Rocket (Eruca)	Brazil (south)
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (antagonist)		Rocket (Eruca)	Brazil (south)
Doru luteipes (predator)	Plutella xylostella	Rocket (Eruca)	Brazil (south)