A1 Journal article (refereed)
Insectivorous Birds Are Attracted by Plant Traits Induced by Insect Egg Deposition (2018)


Mäntylä, E., Kleier, S., Lindstedt, C., Kipper, S., & Hilker, M. (2018). Insectivorous Birds Are Attracted by Plant Traits Induced by Insect Egg Deposition. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 44(12), 1127-1138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-018-1034-1


JYU authors or editors


Publication details

All authors or editorsMäntylä, Elina; Kleier, Sven; Lindstedt, Carita; Kipper, Silke; Hilker, Monika

Journal or seriesJournal of Chemical Ecology

ISSN0098-0331

eISSN1573-1561

Publication year2018

Volume44

Issue number12

Pages range1127-1138

PublisherSpringer US

Publication countryUnited States

Publication languageEnglish

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-018-1034-1

Publication open accessNot open

Publication channel open access


Abstract

Insectivorous birds feed upon all developmental stages of herbivorous insects, including insect eggs if larvae and adults are unavailable. Insect egg deposition on plants can induce plant traits that are subsequently exploited by egg parasitoids searching for hosts. However, it is unknown whether avian predators can also use egg-induced plant changes for prey localization. Here, we studied whether great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) are attracted by traits of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) induced by pine sawfly (Diprion pini) egg deposition. We chose this plant - insect system because sawfly egg deposition on pine needles is known to locally and systemically induce a change in pine volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and tits are known to prey upon sawfly eggs. In dual choice laboratory experiments, we simultaneously offered the birds an egg-free control branch and a systemically egg-induced branch. Significantly more birds visited the egg-induced branch first. We confirmed by GC-MS analyses that systemically egg-induced branches released more (E)-β-farnesene compared to control branches. Spectrophotometric analyses showed that control branches reflected more light than egg-induced branches throughout the avian visual range. Although a discrimination threshold model for blue tits suggests that the birds are poor at discriminating this visual difference, the role of visual stimuli in attracting the birds to egg-induced pines cannot be discounted. Our study shows, for the first time, that egg-induced odorous and/or visual plant traits can help birds to locate insect eggs without smelling or seeing those eggs.


Keywordsbirdsgreat titblue titpredationsense of smelleyesightinsectspine sawflieseggshost plantsvolatile organic compounds

Free keywordsinsect egg deposition; light reflectance; olfaction; terpenoids; vision


Contributing organizations


Related projects


Ministry reportingYes

Reporting Year2018

JUFO rating1


Last updated on 2023-14-12 at 04:14