Chemical ecology: migration and tritrophic interactions

帝王蝶的季节性迁徙已经有了很好的记录，但我们仍然不明白这些出生在北美的帝王蝶是如何找到在墨西哥年复一年使用的特定越冬地点的。 我们将进行实验来验证这样一个假设，即前几代蝴蝶留下的化合物积累在宿主树木的蜡中，作为移民的线索，并且这些化合物是基于通过幼虫和成虫进食从植物中获得的化合物。如果这是真的，这不仅将回答与这种惊人的自然现象有关的一个重要的未解之谜，而且还为保护物种提供了一个潜在的工具。粘虫是一种季节性迁飞的谷物害虫，我们一直使用这个物种作为模式系统来研究蛾的迁移。我们正在将实验室中对迁徙行为背后的生理学研究扩展到野外。这项研究将有助于我们理解迁徙蛾的生态生理学，包括迁徙飞行和未来繁殖之间的权衡，并确定觅食基因是否在迁徙中发挥作用。已有大量文献证明，植物在受到草食动物攻击后会释放挥发物，这些挥发物参与防御的上调。此外，食草动物的天敌使用这些挥发物作为觅食线索。然而，大部分的工作已经进行了有限的生态条件下，我们没有真实的了解这些线索是多么重要的变化的生态条件下。使用独特的设施，在生物技术气候变化研究中心在UWO，我们将研究如何一系列不同的气候条件影响植物防御的上调作为寄生虫的反应，由此产生的挥发物。所获得的结果将有助于了解气候变化如何影响植物防御的诱导，有助于确定落叶植物的挥发物在多大程度上作为有益昆虫的觅食线索，并澄清这些化合物在综合害虫管理计划中是否真的有任何潜力。

The seasonal migration of the monarch butterfly has been well documented yet we still do not understand how the monarchs, born in North America, locate the specific overwintering sites, used year after year in Mexico. We will carry out experiments to test the hypothesis that compounds left by previous generations of butterflies accumulate in the waxes of host trees serve as cues for immigrants, and that these are based on compounds acquired from plants through larval and adult feeding. If true, this will not only answer one of important unanswered questions related to this amazing natural phenomenon, but also provide a potential tool for the conservation of the species. The armyworm is a seasonal migrant cereal pest and we have been using this species as a model system to study moth migration. We are extending our studies of the physiology under lying migratory behavior in the laboratory into the field. The propsed research will contribute to our understanding of eco-physiology in migrant moths, including tradeoffs between migratory flight and future reproduction, and determine if a foraging gene plays a role in migration. It has been well documented that plants emit volatiles following attack by a herbivore and that these are involved in the up-regulation of defenses. Furthermore, natural enemies of herbivores use these volatiles as foraging cues. However, most of the work has been carried out under a limited range of ecological conditions and we have no real understanding of the how important these cues are under variable ecological conditions. Using the unique facilities in the Biotron Climate Change Research Center at UWO we will examine how an array of different climatic conditions affect the up-regulation of plant defenses as the responses of parasitoids to the resulting volatiles. The results obtained will help understand how climate change will affect the induction of plant defenses, help determine to what extent volatiles from defoliated plants serve as foraging cues for beneficial insects and clarify whether there really is any potential for these compounds in integrated pest management programs.