Nutritional Effects on the Appearance of Canola and its Attractiveness to the Cabbage Seedpod Weevil

To investigate visual cues as a mechanism to explain phytophagous insect intraspecific host selection and to explain the effects of plant nutrition on visual cues associated with host selection we assessed the response of the cabbage seedpod weevil, Ceutorhynchus obstrictus, to plants of canola (oil...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of insect behavior 2014-11, Vol.27 (6), p.759-775
Main Authors: Blake, Adam J, Dosdall, Lloyd M, Tansey, James A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Animal and plant ecology
Animal Ecology
Animal ethology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Autoecology
Behavioral Sciences
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brassica
Brassica napus
Brassica napus var. napus
Canola
Ceutorhynchus assimilis
Ceutorhynchus obstrictus
Entomology
Evolutionary Biology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Host plants
Insects
Life Sciences
Neurobiology
Nitrogen
Nutrition
photography
phytophagous insects
Plant nutrition
Plants and fungi
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Spectrophotometry
Sulfur
Vegetables
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To investigate visual cues as a mechanism to explain phytophagous insect intraspecific host selection and to explain the effects of plant nutrition on visual cues associated with host selection we assessed the response of the cabbage seedpod weevil, Ceutorhynchus obstrictus, to plants of canola (oilseed rape), Brassica napus supplied with varied nitrogen (N) rates and sulfur to nitrogen (S:N) ratios. We assessed the effects of these treatments on B. napus appearance using photography and spectrophotometry. Plant nutrition had a significant effect on C. obstrictus; host plant attractiveness declined with increasing S:N ratios. We found strong evidence that attractiveness of host plants to C. obstrictus was mediated by several components of B. napus appearance supporting the role of visual cues in intraspecific host selection.
ISSN:0892-7553
1572-8889
DOI:10.1007/s10905-014-9466-0