Collaborative Research: Host Finding and Acceptance by a Specialized Insect Herbivore

草食性昆虫利用植物的气味来寻找寄主植物。 它们能够追踪宿主气味的机制 当风和湍流导致气味羽流来自 植物蜿蜒和打破是不知道的。 这种缺乏 信息在很大程度上是由于 通过捕获挥发物来描述和量化气味运动 外地的化合物。 建议进行现场和实验室研究 其中将确定是否chrysomelid甲虫不 使用附近明显合适的寄主植物丛，因为它们 无法找到或因为质量（化感物质，营养素） 使它们在被甲虫发现时被拒之门外 这 将通过绘制"气味景观"来预测 植物丛可以被定殖的甲虫发现，也可以不被发现。 示踪挥发物和寄主植物挥发物将被释放， 在野外用低温捕捉技术捕获的 实验室选择测试和现场实验将用于 确定植物克隆是否能被甲虫接受， 的发现 这项研究将有助于了解 害虫如何选择食物植物， 应用于害虫防治。

Herbivorous insects use plant odors to find host plants. The mechanism by which they are able to track host odors to their source when wind and turbulence cause odor plumes coming from plants to meander and break up is not known. This dearth of information results in large part from the difficulty of describing and quantifying odor movement by capturing volatile compounds in the field. A field and laboratory study is proposed in which it will be determined whether chrysomelid beetles do not use apparently suitable clumps of host plants nearby because they are not findable or because quality (allelochemicals, nutrients) causes them to be rejected if the beetles do find them. This will be done by mapping the "odor landscape" to predict which plant clumps are findable or unfindable by colonizing beetles. Tracer volatiles and host-plant volatiles will be released and recaptured in the field using a cryogenic trapping technique. Laboratory choice tests and field experiments will be used to determine whether plant clones are acceptable to the beetles upon discovery. This research will contribute to the understanding of how insect pests select their food plants and has potential application in pest control.