Journal of Insect Behavior (2017) 30, 495-506

Antonio Biondi, Xingeng Wang, Jeffrey C. Miller, Betsey Miller, Peter W. Shearer, Lucia Zappalà, Gaetano Siscaro, Vaughn W. Walton, Kim A. Hoelmer and Kent M. Daane (2017)
Innate olfactory responses of Asobara japonica toward fruits infested by the invasive spotted wing drosophila
Journal of Insect Behavior 30 (5), 495-506
Abstract: Insect parasitoids are often manipulated to improve biological control programs for various arthropod pests. Volatile compounds can be a relevant cue used by most parasitoid hymenoptera for host or host microhabitat location. Here, we studied olfactory responses of the braconid Asobara japonica Belokobylskij, an Asiatic endoparasitoid of the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), toward its host and host substrates. Adult A. japonica displayed an innate attraction to undescribed volatile cues from infested host fruits irrespectively of the juvenile rearing experience, i.e. they respond to a novel cue subsequently used for microhabitat selection. These data suggest that A. japonica parasitoids mass-reared on artificial diet and factitious host (D. melanogaster) can successfully locate their hosts. Naïve female parasitoids did not show a preference towards any of the tested host media. However, the enforced adult experience with the rearing host medium modified the olfactory preference patterns toward non-natal host fruits. These findings provide evidence of associative learning during the adult stage of A. japonica, and demonstrate its plasticity in exploiting the volatiles from various fruits infested by D. suzukii.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Kent M. Daane, Vaughn Martin Walton, Xin-Geng Wang, Lucia Zappala, Kim A. Hoelmer, Antonio Biondi, Peter W. Shearer

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

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Drosophila suzukii
Asobara japonica (parasitoid)	Drosophila suzukii