SEXUALLY MONOMORPHIC MATING PREFERENCES CONTRIBUTE TO PREMATING ISOLATION BASED ON SONG IN EUROPEAN GREEN LACEWINGS

When species are in intermediate stages of divergence, complicated patterns of reproductive isolation can arise among males and females of the incipient species. The Chrysoperla carnea group of green lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) has recently experienced rapid speciation. They possess sexually monomorphic mating signals that were assumed to be important in mate recognition. Our objective was to compare patterns of reproductive isolation among five European species within the species complex as well as sex differences in mating strategies that contribute to those patterns. The species were in fact reproductively isolated based on mating signals. In addition, different species showed different degrees of responsiveness to conspecific signals, and those species that responded more frequently to conspecific signals were less discriminating against heterospecific signals. This suggests differences in mating strategies among species that may be related to population densities and heterospecific encounter rates. Sexual dimorphism in mating preference was apparent only in C. agilis , whose males were more responsive to all signals and less discriminating against heterospecific signals compared to females. Thus high variance in male quality may be characteristic of C. agilis , but not the remaining four species, whose male versus female mating strategies were similar.     

Walnut twig beetle landing rates differ between host and nonhost hardwood trees under the influence of aggregation pheromone in a northern California riparian forest

1. Host selection behaviour of the walnut twig beetle (WTB) among hardwood trees was investigated in a riparian forest in northern California by monitoring the landing rate of the beetle with sticky traps on branches baited with 3-methyl-2-buten-1-ol, the male-produced aggregation pheromone.
2. The assay was conducted over 7 days (22 May to 29 May 2017) and compared landing rates on branches of six nonhost species paired with northern California black walnut, Juglans hindsii (the host).
3. A total of 2242/1192 WTB were collected on branches of host/nonhost pairs, and more WTB landed on J. hindsii than on nonhosts in 42 of 58 instances. Female landing rate generally exceeded male landing rate, which underscores the influence of the male-produced synthetic pheromone in this system.
4. Landing rates of WTB males, females, and the combined sexes on boxelder, Acer negundo, and valley oak, Quercus lobata, did not differ significantly from the landing rates on J. hindsii, suggesting that these two nonhost riparian hardwoods do not repel WTB (in the context of the aggregation pheromone).
5. Significantly fewer WTB landed on Oregon ash, Fraxinus latifolia, river red gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Fremont cottonwood, Populus fremontii, and red willow, Salix laevigata, than on J. hindsii, which suggests that these four nonhosts may repel one or both sexes of WTB in the context of the aggregation pheromone. Future analysis of the volatiles from these four hardwood species may lead to the discovery of semiochemical repellents for WTB.

     

Chemical egg defence in the large milkweed bug,Oncopeltus fasciatus,derives from maternal but not paternal diet

Many herbivorous insects sequester defensive compounds from their host‐plants and incorporate them into their eggs to protect them against predation. Here, we investigate whether transmission of cardenolides from the host‐diet to the eggs is maternal, paternal, or biparental in the large milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus (Dallas) (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae). We reared individual bugs on either milkweed seeds [MW; Asclepias syriaca L. (Apocynaceae)] that contain cardenolides, or on sunflower seeds [SF; Helianthus annuus L. (Asteraceae)] that do not contain cardenolides. We mated females and males so that all four maternal/paternal diet combinations were represented: MW/MW, MW/SF, SF/MW, and SF/SF. Using larvae of the common green lacewing, Chrysoperla (Chrysopa) carnea (Stevens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), we conducted two‐choice predation trials to assess whether maternal, paternal, or biparental transmission of cardenolides into the eggs of O. fasciatus increased protection against predation. Furthermore, we used high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to assess putative cardenolide content of eggs from the various parental diet treatment groups. The predation trials suggested that regardless of male diet, eggs were afforded better protection when females had been raised on milkweed. However, many eggs were at least partially consumed. This suggests that although chemical defence of eggs does not guarantee protection to eggs on an individual basis, they may increase the probability that some eggs in a clutch are left intact thereby potentially conferring a fitness advantage to more offspring than if eggs are left unprotected. Based on HPLC analysis we found that maternal contribution of cardenolides was significantly greater than paternal contribution of cardenolides to the eggs, supporting the results of our predation trials that a maternal diet of milkweed makes eggs more distasteful than a paternal diet of milkweed.