Prey sex pheromone as kairomone for a new group of predators (Coleoptera: Dasytidae, Aplocnemus spp.) of pine bast scales
2011
Branco, Manuela | van Halder, Inge | Franco, J. C. | Constantin, R. | Jactel, Herve | Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (UTL) | Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés (BioGeCo) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Bordeaux (UB) | Independent | We want to thank Pierre Menassieu, Fabrice Vetillard and the French Forest Health Department for their help with the field work in Corsica, and Catarina Sousa, Maria Bernat, Filipa Martins, Catia Figueiredo and Joana Fernandes for their help with the field work in Portugal. Gianfranco Liberti helped us by sending several papers on the ecology and biology of Aplocnemus species. We are grateful to Martine Lettere, from the Unit of Phytopharmacy and Chemical Mediators, INRA, Versailles (France) for supplying M. feytaudi pheromone lures. This work was partially supported by FCT - Fundacao para Ciencia e Tecnologia (Portugal) through the Pluriannual Program. The study in Corsica was supported by the French Ministry of Agriculture and the Regional Community of Corsica.
International audience
Afficher plus [+] Moins [-]anglais. During the last decades, an increasing number of predators were found to use specific prey pheromones as chemical cues. Beyond its ecological relevance, this knowledge has practical applications on insect conservation and pest control. In this study, we present first evidence that two species of the family Dasytidae (Coleoptera) Aplocnemus brevis Rosenhauer and A. raymondi Sainte-Claire Deville use the sex pheromone of the pine bast scale Matsucoccus feytaudi Ducasse (Hemiptera: Matsucoccidae) as kairomone to locate this prey. The feeding habits and biology of Aplocnemus species are practically unknown. In the laboratory, the adults of Aplocnemus sp. accepted M. feytaudi egg masses as food source as well as other diets. Females represented more than 90% of Aplocnemus sp. attracted to the pheromone lures. We believe that females use this olfactory cue to locate suitable places for oviposition and that larvae are the predators of Matsucoccus. This study further demonstrates that the response to the kairomone elicited short prey searching times, about 23% of the individuals appeared less than 12 min after lure exposure, being consistent with the hypothesis of prey specialization. Habitat and geographical distribution predict an ancestral association of A. brevis with M. feytaudi and of A. raymondi with M. pini. Nevertheless, a recent prey shift of A. raymondi to the invasive M. feytaudi in Corsica is in progress.
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