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Odour Alone (odour + alone)

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Life Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Chemostimuli implicated in selection of oviposition substrates by the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans

MEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
P JEANBOURQUIN
Abstract Horse and cow dung were tested as substrates for oviposition by the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans (L) (Diptera: Muscidae) in laboratory cages. Odour alone from either horse or cow dung was sufficient to attract flies for oviposition. This was confirmed in wind tunnel experiments, where both horse and cow dung were shown to attract gravid stable flies. However, when S. calcitrans was offered a choice between these two oviposition substrates, flies always chose horse dung over cow dung, both when allowed to contact the substrates and when relying on dung odour alone. Analyses of volatile compounds emanating from horse and cow dung by gas chromatography linked antennogram recordings from S. calcitrans antennae revealed no differences in the chemostimuli released from the two substrates. The predominant chemostimulant compounds in both substrates were carboxylic acids (butanoic acid), alcohols (oct-1-en-3-ol), aldehydes (decanal), ketones (octan-3-one), phenols (p -cresol), indoles (skatole), terpenes (,-caryophyllene) and sulphides (dimethyl trisulphide). Higher levels (20,40 p.p.m.) of carbon dioxide were recorded over horse dung compared with cow dung, a factor that may contribute to the preference exhibited by S. calcitrans for this substrate for oviposition. [source]

Extrafloral nectar from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) as a food source for parasitic wasps

FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2006
U. S. R. RÖSE
Summary 1For many adult nectar-feeding parasitoids food and moisture are essential for survival in the field. Early in the season, when floral nectar is not yet available in cotton, extrafloral nectar (EFN) is already present on young cotton plants. 2The parasitoid Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) can use EFN cotton plants as an only food source. The longevity and reproduction of EFN-fed female wasps was comparable to wasps fed with honey and water provided on nectariless (NL) cotton plants, and was significantly higher compared with wasps kept on NL plants with no additional food source. 3Wasps that were given preflight experiences on EFN cotton plants choose EFN cotton over NL cotton plants in two choice experiments in the flight tunnel. The parasitoids are more willing to search on an EFN plant at their second and third encounter with a plant previously visited, compared with an NL cotton plant. 4Wasps can locate EFN from short distances by its odour alone, and find it almost as fast as honey, but much faster than odourless sucrose, which is only found randomly. Experience with EFN increased the retention ability of parasitoids on a flower model. [source]

Chemostimuli implicated in selection of oviposition substrates by the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans

MEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
P JEANBOURQUIN
Abstract Horse and cow dung were tested as substrates for oviposition by the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans (L) (Diptera: Muscidae) in laboratory cages. Odour alone from either horse or cow dung was sufficient to attract flies for oviposition. This was confirmed in wind tunnel experiments, where both horse and cow dung were shown to attract gravid stable flies. However, when S. calcitrans was offered a choice between these two oviposition substrates, flies always chose horse dung over cow dung, both when allowed to contact the substrates and when relying on dung odour alone. Analyses of volatile compounds emanating from horse and cow dung by gas chromatography linked antennogram recordings from S. calcitrans antennae revealed no differences in the chemostimuli released from the two substrates. The predominant chemostimulant compounds in both substrates were carboxylic acids (butanoic acid), alcohols (oct-1-en-3-ol), aldehydes (decanal), ketones (octan-3-one), phenols (p -cresol), indoles (skatole), terpenes (,-caryophyllene) and sulphides (dimethyl trisulphide). Higher levels (20,40 p.p.m.) of carbon dioxide were recorded over horse dung compared with cow dung, a factor that may contribute to the preference exhibited by S. calcitrans for this substrate for oviposition. [source]

Development of Species Preferences in Two Hamsters, Phodopus campbelli and Phodopus sungorus: Effects of Cross-Fostering

ETHOLOGY, Issue 3 2001
Nina YU.
Experiments were conducted to investigate species-specific preferences in two closely related species of hamsters, Phodopus campbelli and Phodopus sungorus. Male hamsters that were raised with conspecifics spent more time investigating an anaesthetized conspecific male than a heterospecific male, and also spent more time investigating odours of conspecifics than those of heterospecifics (midventral gland, urine, and saccular secretion). Cross-fostered P. sungorus males reversed their normal preferences, spending more time investigating stimuli (anaesthetized males and all three odours) of the foster species. Cross-fostered P. campbelli males also investigated an anaesthetized male of the foster species more than a male of their own species, but did not show a preference for odours alone. Social experience during the 15 d immediately following weaning also influenced these preferences. If exposures during and after nesting were to heterospecifics the preference for heterospecifics was strengthened; if either period of experience was with a conspecific, this eliminated the preference for heterospecifics in P. sungorus but did not influence the lack of a preference in P. campbelli. Thus, early experience during both the nestling stage and the 15 d after weaning influenced responses to species-typical cues in both species, but it had a more pronounced effect in P. sungorus. [source]