The Gastropod Menace: Slugs on Brassica Plants Affect Caterpillar Survival Through Consumption and Interference With Parasitoid Attraction

Desurmont, Gaylord A.; Zemanova, Miriam Andela; Turlings, Ted C. J. (2016). The Gastropod Menace: Slugs on Brassica Plants Affect Caterpillar Survival Through Consumption and Interference With Parasitoid Attraction. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 42(3), pp. 183-192. Springer 10.1007/s10886-016-0682-2

[img]
Preview
Text
Gastropod Menace.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (465kB) | Preview

Terrestrial molluscs and insect herbivores play a major role as plant consumers in a number of ecosystems, but their direct and indirect interactions have hardly been explored. The omnivorous nature of slugs makes them potential disrupters of predator-prey relationships, as a direct threat to small insects and through indirect, plant-mediated effects. Here, we examined the effects of the presence of two species of slugs, Arion rufus (native) and A. vulgaris (invasive) on the
survivorship of young Pieris brassicae caterpillars when feeding on Brassica rapa plants, and on plant attractiveness to the main natural enemy of P. brassicae, the parasitoid Cotesia glomerata. In two separate predation experiments, caterpillar mortality was significantly higher on plants co-infested with A. rufus or A. vulgaris. Moreover, caterpillar mortality correlated positively with slug mass and leaf consumption by A. vulgaris. At the third trophic level, plants infested with slugs and plants co-infested with slugs and caterpillars were far less attractive to parasitoids than plants damaged by caterpillars only, independently of slug species. Chemical analyses confirmed that volatile emissions, which provide foraging cues for parasitoids, were strongly reduced in co-infested
plants. Our study shows that the presence of slugs has the potential to affect insect populations, directly via consumptive effects, and indirectly via changes in plant volatiles that result in a reduced attraction of natural enemies. The fitness cost for P. brassicae imposed by increased mortality in presence of
slugs may be counterbalanced by the benefit of escaping its parasitoids

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE)

UniBE Contributor:

Zemanova, Miriam Andela

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

0098-0331

Publisher:

Springer

Language:

English

Submitter:

Alexander Strauss

Date Deposited:

11 Oct 2017 15:10

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:07

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s10886-016-0682-2

PubMed ID:

27002323

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Herbivore-induced plant volatiles; Indirect defense; Infochemical networks; Intraguild predation; Invasive slug; Molluscan ecology; VOCs

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.105590

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/105590

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback