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CONTACT CHEMORECEPTION IN FEEDING BY PHYTOPHAGOUS INSECTS
Gustatory receptors associated with feeding in phytophagous insects are broadly categorized as phagostimulatory or deterrent. No phytophagous insect is known that tastes all its essential nutrients, and the ability to discriminate between nutrients is limited. The insects acquire a nutritional balan...
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Published in: | Annual review of entomology 2003-01, Vol.48 (1), p.455-484 |
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Main Author: | |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Gustatory receptors associated with feeding in phytophagous insects are
broadly categorized as phagostimulatory or deterrent. No phytophagous insect is
known that tastes all its essential nutrients, and the ability to discriminate
between nutrients is limited. The insects acquire a nutritional balance largely
"adventitiously" because leaves have an appropriate chemical
composition. Sugars are the most important phagostimulants. Plant secondary
compounds are most often deterrent but stimulate phagostimulatory cells if they
serve as host-indicating sign stimuli, or if they are sequestered for defense
or used as pheromone precursors. The stimulating effects of chemicals are
greatly affected by other chemicals in mixtures like those to which the
sensilla are normally exposed. Host plant selection depends on the balance of
phagostimulatory and deterrent inputs with, in some oligophagous and
monophagous species, a dominating role of a host-related chemical. Evolution of
phytophagy has probably involved a change in emphasis in the gustatory system,
not fundamentally new developments. The precise role of the gustatory systems
remains unclear. In grasshoppers, it probably governs food selection and the
amounts eaten, but in caterpillars there is some evidence that central
feedbacks are also involved in regulating the amount eaten. |
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ISSN: | 0066-4170 1545-4487 |
DOI: | 10.1146/annurev.ento.48.091801.112629 |