Original paper
Linking aboveground and belowground interactions via herbivore-induced plant volatiles
Sun, Xiao; Sun, Yumei; Ma, Ling; Liu, Zhen; Zhang, Chujun; Huang, Wei; Siemann, Evan; Ding, Jianqing
Entomologia Generalis Volume 42 Number 3 (2022), p. 421 - 429
published: May 18, 2022
published online: Feb 4, 2022
manuscript accepted: Nov 2, 2021
final revised version received: Sep 3, 2021
manuscript revision requested: Jun 15, 2021
manuscript received: Apr 3, 2021
DOI: 10.1127/entomologia/2022/1344
ArtNo. ESP146004203007, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
Plants mediate above- and belowground interactions within insect assemblages via herbivore-induced plant volatiles and thereby influence host plant colonization by different herbivores. By changing shoot-emitted volatiles, herbivores may disrupt the host location behavior of heterospecific herbivores and natural enemies. However, effects of simultaneous conspecific above- and belowground herbivory on multiple trophic levels have received little attention. First, we infested Chinese tallow tree plants with aboveground feeding adults and/or belowground feeding larvae of a beetle (Bikasha collaris) alone or together with heterospecific above- or belowground herbivores. Then, we determined the preferences of heterospecific above- and belowground herbivores plus an entomopathogenic soil nematode for these plants in greenhouse experiments and olfactometer trials. Finally, we used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze above- and belowground volatiles variation among different feeding treatments. We found that Spodoptera litura moths avoided plants with herbivory by B. collaris larvae and adults via herbivore-induced plant volatiles. The herbivorous belowground feeding grub Holotrichia parallela avoided plants with above- or belowground herbivory. The parasitic nematode Heterorhabditis megidis preferred plants that had B. collaris larvae. Furthermore, the profiles of both leaf and root volatiles induced by B. collaris larvae and adults plus other herbivores varied. These results hint that interactions involving above- and belowground conspecific herbivores could shape plant rhizosphere and phyllosphere herbivore communities by modifying above- and belowground volatiles, as well as by modulating colonization by other herbivores and associated natural enemies.
Keywords
Spodoptera litura
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Bikasha collaris
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conspecific •
heterospecific •
entomopathogenic nematode •
Meloidogyne incognita