DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Relative Roles of Heredity and Experience in the Oviposition Behavior of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly

选择产卵的寄主植物对许多食草昆虫来说是一个关键的决定。在整个北美东部，雌性黑燕尾蝶（凤蝶）寻找产卵的植物。当卵孵化时，毛毛虫太小了，不能移动到另一株植物上，如果母亲在错误的植物上产卵，就会饿死。因此，雌性对植物的选择对后代的生存至关重要。这种蝴蝶的潜在宿主包括许多伞形科植物，包括胡萝卜，莳萝和欧芹。由于这些植物的外观，气味和味道彼此非常不同，人们想知道女性如何使用视觉，嗅觉和味觉线索来区分可接受的植物和周围不可接受的植物。由于雌性总是一代又一代地选择相同的宿主物种，对至少一种植物暗示的行为反应必须是基于遗传的，或者说是天生的。哪些植物信号触发先天反应，哪些触发习得反应尚未确定。本项目将研究三种类型的植物线索，这些蝴蝶的反应，并确定遗传学和学习的相对重要性，蝴蝶对他们的反应。这将是第一次研究植物取食昆虫对宿主植物线索的先天反应，并可能对理解其他植物取食昆虫的行为产生影响，包括农业害虫。

The choice of a host plant upon which to lay eggs is a critical decision for many plant-eating insects. Throughout eastern North America, female black swallowtail butterflies (Papilio polyxenes) search for plants on which to lay their eggs. When an egg hatches, the caterpillar is too small to move to another plant and starves to death if the mother lays an egg on the wrong plant. Thus, the female's choice of plants is crucial for offspring survival. Potential hosts for this butterfly include many plant species in the family Apiaceae, including carrot, dill, and parsley. Since these plants look, smell, and taste very different from one another, one wonders how females use visual, olfactory, and gustatory cues to distinguish acceptable plants from surrounding unacceptable ones. Since females consistently choose the same host species generation after generation, the behavioral response to at least one plant cue must be genetically based, or innate. Which plant cues trigger innate responses and which trigger learned responses have not yet been determined. This project will examine each of three types of plant cue to which these butterflies respond and determine the relative importance of genetics and learning for butterfly responses to them. This will be the first study of innate responses to host-plant cues for a plant-feeding insect and may have implications for understanding the behavior of other plant-feeding insects, including species of agricultural pests.