PLoS ONE (2018) 13 (1 - e0190401)

Pu Hu, Hui-ling Li, Hong-fei Zhang, Qian-wen Luo, Xian-ru Guo, Gao-ping Wang, Wei-zheng Li and Guohui Yuan (2018)
Experience-based mediation of feeding and oviposition behaviors in the cotton bollworm: Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
PLoS ONE 13 (1 - e0190401)
Abstract: Experience is well known to affect sensory-guided behaviors in many herbivorous insects. Here, we investigated the effects of natural feeding experiences of Helicoverpa armigera larvae on subsequent preferences of larval approaching and feeding, as well as the effect of host-contacting experiences of mated females on subsequent ovipositional preference. The results show that the extent of experience-induced preference, expressed by statistical analysis, depended on the plant species paired with the experienced host plant. Larval feeding preference was much easier to be induced by natural feeding experience than larval approaching preference. Naïve larvae, reared on artificial diet, exhibited clear host-ranking order as follows: tobacco > cotton > tomato > hot pepper. Feeding experiences on hot pepper and tobacco could always induce positive feeding preference, while those on cotton often induced negative effect, suggesting that the direction of host plant experience-induced preference is not related to innate feeding preference. Inexperienced female adults ranked tobacco as the most preferred ovipositional host plant, and this innate preference could be masked or weakened but could not be reversed by host-contacting experience after emergence.
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Database assignments for author(s): Guo-Hui Yuan

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Helicoverpa armigera	Green pepper/chilli (Capsicum)
	Helicoverpa armigera	Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)
	Helicoverpa armigera	Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)
	Helicoverpa armigera	Cotton (Gossypium)	China (NE)