Skip to main content
Entomology 2021 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
In-Person
In-Person
Livestream
Livestream
On-Demand
On-Demand
Student Competition
Student Competition
Video Chat
Video Chat
Ticketed Event
Ticketed Event
Poster Icons
Student Competition
Student Competition
In-Person
In-Person
Poster
Poster
On-Demand
On-Demand
Back
Q&A ViewAttendees 12

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Undergrad P-IE: Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Very hungry caterpillars: Exposure to herbivore-induced volatiles increases caterpillar feeding on neighboring plants

Monday, November 1, 2021
9:36 AM – 9:48 AM MT
Location: Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room 111-113
In-Person Student Competition
Plants emit volatile organic compounds in response to herbivory, which play important roles in plant defense. Neighboring plants can detect these volatiles and ‘prime’ their defenses based on the specific blend of herbivore-induced volatiles. Primed plants typically mount a faster or stronger defense against herbivores. Recent evidence, however, revealed that volatiles from neighboring plants can also increase susceptibility to future herbivore damage. Volatile communication has been observed for many species but not in the plant family Cucurbitaceae. Therefore, our goal was to determine whether zucchini plants (Cucurbita pepo) respond to volatiles from plants damaged by salt marsh moth caterpillars (Estigmene acrea). We predicted that volatile exposure would prime or enhance plant defenses against herbivory. To test this hypothesis, ‘emitter’ plants were damaged by larvae or left as undamaged controls and neighboring ‘receiver’ plants were exposed to emitter-produced volatiles. After 24 hours of volatile exposure, emitters were removed and receivers were damaged with caterpillars. We then quantified herbivore feeding damage and defense chemistry in the receiver plants. Overall, we found receivers exposed to damaged-emitter volatiles sustained more feeding damage. Further, damaged-emitter volatiles also reduced defenses in receivers compared to undamaged-emitter exposed receivers. Our results demonstrate an example of volatile-mediated sabotage, where herbivores suppress plant defenses by inducing inaccurate communication. Altogether, our data contribute to a better understanding of the role of herbivore-induced volatiles in plant-to-plant communication.