Meredith C Schuman, Kathleen Barthel, Ian T Baldwin
A 2-year field study has demonstrated that volatile compounds produced by plants when they are attacked by herbivores act as defenses by attracting predators to the herbivores and increasing the reproduction of the plants.
Instead of repelling, Desmodium, a hallmark of pest suppressive sustainable intercropping, acts as a mechanical and developmental barrier to larvae, thereby truncating population development.
Jamie Mitchel Waterman, Tristan Michael Cofer ... Matthias Erb
Real-time volatile emission kinetics reveal stress volatiles emitted from herbivore-damaged plants can sequentially prime and induce defense responses in undamaged plants following distinct temporal patterns.
The ability of Manduca moths to recognize changes in the profile of volatile compounds released by plants being attacked by Manduca caterpillars allows them to lay their eggs on plants that are less likely to be attacked by insects and other predators, and to avoid competing against other caterpillars of the same species for resources.
Both the frequency of sesquiterpene-emitting individuals and the defense capacity of individual plants determine the consequences of sesquiterpene volatile emission for individuals and their neighbors in populations of the wild tobacco Nicotiana attenuata.
The brown planthopper has evolved a highly adaptive oviposition strategy by exploiting caterpillar-induced plant volatiles that provide safe havens for its offspring.
Floral scent and nectar are highly variable in natural populations and both traits can influence outcrossing rates differently for different pollinators and increase future herbivory.
Sonja Bisch-Knaden, Michelle A Rafter ... Bill S Hansson
The sense of smell of female hawkmoths has evolved to find the intense odor of floral nectar sources as well as inconspicuous scents of oviposition sites within a complex olfactory landscape.