Neuroethology of Oviposition Behaviorin the Moth Manduca sexta

摘要

Olfactory cues play decisive roles in the lives of most insect species, providing infor-mation about biologically relevant resources, such as food, mates, and oviposition sites.The nocturnal moth Manduca sexta feeds on floral nectar from a variety of plants (andthus serves as a pollinator), but females oviposit almost exclusively on solanaceousplants, which they recognize on the basis of olfactory cues. Plants, however, respondto herbivory by releasing blends of volatiles that attract natural enemies of herbivores.Thus, oviposition behavior probably results from the sensory evaluation not only of at-tractive ,host plant volatiles but also of repellent volatiles that indicate the acceptabilityor inappropriateness, respectively, of host plants for the females' offspring. Here wedescribe results from chemical–ecological, neurophysiological, and behavioral experi-ments aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms that control oviposition behaviorin M. sexta.