Associative Learning of Food Odor by Social Wasps in a Natural Ecosystem

Journal of Chemical Ecology
Ashraf M El-SayedDavid M Suckling

Abstract

The ability of insects to associate olfactory cues with food from their environment has been well documented with various insect orders. However, these studies were based on prior training of insects to associate odors with food sources in the laboratory or in the field with almost no evidence for the development of this phenomenon in natural ecosystems. In New Zealand's ancient Fuscospora spp. or beech forests, invasive Vespula social wasps were attracted to odor from honeydew (benzaldehyde and n-octanol) but did not respond to a known wasp attractant (isobutanol and acetic acid). On the other hand, wasps in a rural/suburban area in New Zealand did not respond to honeydew odor but responded instead to the known wasp attractant. Similarly, social wasps in Hungary did not respond to honeydew odor, but responded to the known wasp attractant. DNA sequences of Vespula vulgaris from the two locations in New Zealand were 100% identical. Similarly, DNA sequences of V. germanica from the two locations in New Zealand were 100% identical, indicating little or no intra-specific variation. On the other hand, DNA sequences of V. vulgaris and V. germanica from New Zealand were 99.56 and 99.78% matches with V. vulgaris and V. germanica sample...Continue Reading

References

Jul 1, 1993·Neuron·R L Davis
Apr 1, 1996·Physiological Reviews·R L Davis
Sep 7, 2007·Annual Review of Entomology·Reuven Dukas
Jul 15, 2011·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Patrício SimõesJeremy E Niven
Mar 7, 2012·Pest Management Science·Cause HannaClaire Kremen

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Citations

Jul 1, 2020·Insect Science·Sabrina MoreyraMariana Lozada
May 30, 2019·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Zhiwen GongJames C Nieh
Nov 13, 2018·Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry·Ashraf M El-SayedDavid M Suckling
Sep 22, 2021·Journal of Chemical Ecology·Nandita NatarajMarkus Knaden

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Datasets Mentioned

BETA
XX00000
GU207851

Software Mentioned

Geneious R8

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