Oecologia (2014) 174, 853-862

Yehua Li, Marcel Dicke, Jeffrey A. Harvey and Rieta Gols (2014)
Intra-specific variation in wild Brassica oleracea for aphid-induced plant responses and consequences for caterpillar-parasitoid interactions
Oecologia 174 (3), 853-862
Abstract: Herbivore-induced plant responses not only influence the initiating attackers, but also other herbivores feeding on the same host plant simultaneously or at a different time. Insects belonging to different feeding guilds are known to induce different responses in the host plant. Changes in a plant's phenotype not only affect its interactions with herbivores but also with organisms higher in the food chain. Previous work has shown that feeding by a phloem-feeding aphid on a cabbage cultivar facilitates the interaction with a chewing herbivore and its endoparasitoid. Here we study genetic variation in a plant's response to aphid feeding using plants originating from three wild Brassica oleracea populations that are known to differ in constitutive and inducible secondary chemistry. We compared the performance of two different chewing herbivore species, Plutella xylostella and M. brassicae, and their larval endoparasitoids Diadegma semiclausum and M. mediator, respectively, on plants that had been infested with aphids (Brevicoryne brassicae) for 1 week. Remarkably, early infestation with B. brassicae enhanced the performance of the specialist P. xylostella and its parasitoid D. semiclausum, but did not affect that of the generalist M. brassicae, nor its parasitoid M. mediator. Performance of the two herbivore-parasitoid interactions also varied among the cabbage populations and the effect of aphid infestation marginally differed among the three populations. Thus, the effect of aphid infestation on the performance of subsequent attackers is species specific, which may have concomitant consequences for the assembly of insect communities that are naturally associated with these plants.
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Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Yehua Li, Marcel Dicke, Rieta Gols, Jeffrey A. Harvey

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
environment - cropping system/rotation
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.
	Mamestra brassicae	Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)
	Plutella xylostella	Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)
	Brevicoryne brassicae	Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)
Diadegma semiclausum (parasitoid)	Plutella xylostella
Microplitis mediator (parasitoid)	Mamestra brassicae