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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Protection and Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #128348
Title: CONDITIONING OF APPETITIVE BEHAVIOR IN THE HYMENOPTERAN PARASITOID MICROPLITIS CROCEIPES.

Author
item WACKERS, FELIX - NIOO-CTO/THE NETHERLANDS
item BONIFAY, CLAIRE - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item Lewis, Wallace

Submitted to: Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2002
Publication Date: 5/1/2002
Citation: Wackers, F., Bonifay, C., Lewis, W.J. 2002. Conditioning of appetitive behavior in the hymenopteran parasitoid Microplitis croceipes. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 103(2):135-138.

Interpretive Summary: Resistance, environmental, human safety, and other problems with conventional pesticides have caused scientists to seek effective alternatives including natural enemies. Understanding natural enemies and how they interact with crop pests is essential to their reliable use in pest control. ARS scientists at Tifton, GA are seeking to better understand the host and food finding mechanisms of Microplitis croceipes, parasitic wasp that attacks the caterpillar stage of bollworms and tobacco budworms. The ability of the wasps to learn odors associated with sugar water and kinds of behaviors subsequently displayed in association with these odors were studied. The wasps, indeed, learned chemical odors provided in association with the sugar water and subsequently displayed unambiguous food searching behaviors when presented these odors. This type of information is central to designing effective biological control programs, since high efficiency is crucial to the effectiveness of parasitoids as control agents.

Technical Abstract: Work on insect learning has made ample use of conditioned behaviors in single learning tasks. Parasitic wasps are particularly suited to study more complex learning processes, as they alternate between host searching, and foraging for sugar sources. We here describe a set of behaviors that unambiguously represents sugar feeding in the Hymenopteran parasitoid Microplitis croceipes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this parasitoid can be conditioned to exhibit these behaviors in response to odor stimuli previously associated with feeding. In conjunction with previously described ovipositor probing response in this species, our findings constitute the first instance in which multiple conditioned behaviors representing feeding and reproduction have been identified for one insect species. This provides a valuable tool for the study of multiple task learning.