Lewis W.J., J.H. Tumlinson, and S. Krasnoff. 1991. CHEMICALLY MEDIATED ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING: AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION IN THE FORAGING BEHAVIOR OF Microplitis croceipes (CRESSON). J. Chem. Ecol. 17:1309-25.

ABSTRACT

When experienced by contact with feces from hosts feeding on
cowpeas, laboratory-reared females of Microplitis croeipes, a larval para-
sitoid of Heliothis spp.. respond and fly to odors of the same feces, whereas
naïve laboratory-reared females do not. Flight-tunnel studies revcaled that
associative learning occurs during temale encounters with hosts and host
products. When females antennatc host feces, they learn to recognize the
volatile odors associated with the feces. Females even can be conditioned to
respond to novel and otherwise unattractive odors such as vanilla extract by
exposure to these volatile substances in association with a water extract of
the feces. They apparently link the volatile odors with a nonvolatilc host-
specific recognition chemical found in the feces. The antennating stimulant,
13-methylhentnacontane, was found to be a valuable ingredient, apparently
as a tacilitator of the initial antennation and subsequcnt linkage of the vola-
tiles to the nonvolatile host recognition cue.