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Title:
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Maintenance of narrow diet breadth
in the monarch butterfly caterpillar: Response to various plant species and
chemicals.
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Author(s):
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Vickerman,
Danel B.; de
Boer, Gerrit
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Author Affiliation:
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Department of Entomology,
University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA, USA
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Author Email(s):
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danel.vickerman@ucr.edu
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Source:
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Entomologia Experimentalis et
Applicata, September 2002, 2002, Vol. 104, iss. 2-3, pp. 255-269
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Publication Year:
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2002
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Abstract:
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In order to better understand
the maintenance of a fairly narrow diet breadth in monarch butterfly larvae,
Danaus plexippus L. (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Danainae), we measured feeding
preference and survival on host and non-host plant species, and sensitivity
to host and non-host plant chemicals. For the plant species tested, a
hierarchy of feeding preferences was observed; only plants from the
Asclepiadaceae were more or equally preferred to Asclepias curassavica, the
common control. The feeding preferences among plant species within the
Asclepiadaceae are similar to published mean cardenolide concentrations.
However, since cardenolide data were not collected from individual plants
tested, definitive conclusions regarding cardenolide concentrations and plant
acceptability cannot be made. Although several non-Asclepiadaceae were eaten
in small quantities, all were less preferred to A. curassavica. Additionally,
these non-Asclepiadaceae do not support continued feeding, development, and
survival of first and fifth-instar larvae. Preference for a host versus a
non-host (A. curassavica versus Vinca rosea) increased for A. curassavica
reared larvae as compared to diet-reared larvae suggesting plasticity in
larval food preferences. Furthermore, host species were significantly
preferred over non-host plant species in bioassays using a host plant or
sucrose as a common control. Larval responses to pure chemicals were examined
in order to determine if host and non-host chemicals stimulate or deter
feeding in monarch larvae. We found that larvae were stimulated to feed by
some ubiquitous plant chemicals, such as sucrose, inositol, and rutin. In
contrast, several non-host plant chemicals deterred feeding: caffeine,
apocynin, gossypol, tomatine, atropine, quercitrin, and sinigrin.
Additionally the cardenolides digitoxin and ouabain, which are not in
milkweed plants, were neutral in their influence on feeding. Another
non-milkweed cardenolide, cymarin, significantly deterred feeding. Extracts
of A. curassavica leaves were tested in bioassays to determine which
components of the leaf stimulate feeding. Both an ethanol extract of whole
leaves and a hexane leaf-surface extract are phagostimulatory, suggesting the
involvement of both polar and non-polar plant compounds. These data suggest
that the host range of D. plexippus larvae is maintained by both feeding
stimulatory and deterrent chemicals in host and non-host plants.
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Major Concepts:
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Behavior;
Biochemistry
and Molecular Biophysics
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Super Taxa:
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Apocynaceae: Dicotyledones,
Angiospermae, Spermatophyta, Plantae; Asclepiadaceae: Dicotyledones,
Angiospermae, Spermatophyta, Plantae; Lepidoptera: Insecta, Arthropoda,
Invertebrata, Animalia
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Taxa Notes:
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Angiosperms;
Animals;
Arthropods;
Dicots;
Insects;
Invertebrates;
Plants;
Spermatophytes;
Vascular
Plants
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Organisms:
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Asclepias
curassavica (Asclepiadaceae): food, host; Danaus
plexippus [monarch butterfly] (Lepidoptera): herbivore, larva; Vinca
rosea (Apocynaceae); milkweed
(Asclepiadaceae)
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Chemicals:
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apocynin;
atropine;
caffeine;
cymarin;
digitoxin;
gossypol;
inositol:
phagostimulant; ouabain;
plant
compounds: non-polar, polar; quercitrin;
rutin:
phagostimulant; sinigrin;
sucrose:
phagostimulant; tomatine
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Registry Numbers:
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498-02-2: APOCYNIN; 51-55-8:
ATROPINE; 58-08-2: CAFFEINE; 508-77-0: CYMARIN; 71-63-6:
DIGITOXIN; 303-45-7: GOSSYPOL; 87-89-8Q: INOSITOL; 6917-35-7Q: INOSITOL;
630-60-4: OUABAIN; 522-12-3: QUERCITRIN; 153-18-4: RUTIN; 3952-98-5:
SINIGRIN; 57-50-1: SUCROSE; 17406-45-0: TOMATINE
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Parts & Structures:
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leaf
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Miscellaneous Terms:
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behavioral plasticity; diet
breadth; feeding deterrence; feeding preferences; food acceptability;
herbivory; plant-insect interactions
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Concept Codes:
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* 07002 Behavioral
Biology-General and Comparative Behavior
- 07003 Behavioral Biology-Animal Behavior
- 10060 Biochemical Studies-General
- 10062 Biochemical Studies-Nucleic Acids, Purines
and Pyrimidines
- 10067 Biochemical Studies-Sterols and Steroids
- 10068 Biochemical Studies-Carbohydrates
- 25502 Developmental Biology-Embryology-General
and Descriptive
- 51522 Plant Physiology, Biochemistry and
Biophysics-Chemical Constituents
- 64076 Invertebrata, Comparative and Experimental
Morphology, Physiology and Pathology-Insecta-Physiology
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Biosystematic Codes:
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25580 Apocynaceae
25600 Asclepiadaceae
75330 Lepidoptera
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Language:
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English
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ISSN:
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00138703
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Document Information:
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Publication Type: Article.
Record Type: Abstract. Media Type: print. Update Code: 20030327
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Accession Number:
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BASB200300021770
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