Abstract
Experiments were performed to determine the effect of caterpillar feeding damage on wasp foraging behavior and to determine the relative importance of visual and olfactory plant cues for foraging wasps. In an experiment using caterpillar-damaged leaves, wasps took significantly more larvae from the previously damaged plants compared to the controls in the experiments with tobacco plants, but wasps did not distinguish between damaged and control plants in the experiments with tomato plants. Another experiment indicated that wasps use a combination of visual and olfactory cues of plant damage in their search for prey rather than just visual or olfactory cues alone. Furthermore, these results suggest that leaf shape may affect wasp detection of caterpillar feeding damage and thus detection of prey.
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Cornelius, M.L. Influence of caterpillar-feeding damage on the foraging behavior of the paper waspMischocyttarus flavitarsis (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). J Insect Behav 6, 771–781 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01201676
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01201676