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Wound-induced changes in tomato leaves and their effects on the feeding patterns of larval lepidoptera

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Abstract

Several studies have shown changes in the patterns of damage from feeding insects associated with changes in palatability and overall consumption as a result of wound-induced chemical changes in plants. This paper describes how the pattern of feeding damage made by the larvae of Spodoptera littoralis Boisd. (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on tomato is affected by changes in palatability of the leaves. Two sorts of responses to leaves from plants that had received prior damage were observed. Larvae offered a choice of leaves tended to take fewer meals on leaves from previously-wounded plants than on control leaves, frequently rejecting the former after sampling them. On wounded plants this rejection behaviour was associated with a shift in feeding site towards the base of the plant. However, starved larvae offered only a single excised leaf readily ate leaves from wounded plants but took shorter meals on these leaves than on controls. Although it was not directly tested it is possible that this difference in response reflected changes in food selectivity with a differing level of satiation. The results are considered in relation to the adaptive significance of the plant of changes in within-plant distributions of herbivore damage.

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Author notes

  1. A. M. Barker

    Present address: The Game Conservancy, Burgate Manor, SP6 1EF, Fordingbridge, Hants., UK

  2. S. D. Wratten

    Present address: Department of Entomology and Animal Ecology, Lincoln University, PQ Box 84, Canterbury, New Zealand

  3. P. J. Edwards

    Present address: Geobolanisches Institut ETH, Zurichbergstrasse 38, CH-8044, Zürich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Southampton, Bassett Green Road, SO9 3TU, Southampton, UK

    A. M. Barker, S. D. Wratten & P. J. Edwards

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  1. A. M. Barker
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  2. S. D. Wratten
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  3. P. J. Edwards
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Barker, A.M., Wratten, S.D. & Edwards, P.J. Wound-induced changes in tomato leaves and their effects on the feeding patterns of larval lepidoptera. Oecologia 101, 251–257 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00317291

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00317291

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