Unknown

Dataset Information

0

Foliage Intensity is an Important Cue of Habitat Location for Empoasca onukii.


ABSTRACT: For many herbivorous insects, vision is more important than olfaction in the prealighting stage of host habitat location. Tea leafhoppers, Empoasca onukii (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae), are serious pests that preferentially inhabit the tender leaves of tea plants across China. Here, we investigated whether tea leafhoppers could distinguish foliage colors associated with different leaf ages and use this visual cue to guide suitable habitat location from short distances. Similar to honeybees, the adult E. onukii has an apposition type of compound eye, and each ommatidium has eight retinular cells, in which three spectral types of photoreceptors are distributed, with peak sensitivities at 356 nm (ultraviolet), 435 nm (blue), and 542 nm (green). Both changes in spectral intensity and hue of reflectance light of the host foliage were correlated with varying leaf age, and the intensity linearly decreased with increasing leaf age. Behavioral responses also showed that adult E. onukii could discriminate between the simulated colors of host foliage at different leaf ages without olfactory stimuli and selected the bright colors that strongly corresponded to those of tender leaves. The results suggest that, compared with the spectral composition (hue), the intensity of light reflectance from leaves at different ages is more important for adult leafhoppers when discriminating host foliage and could guide them to tender leaves at the top of tea shoots.

SUBMITTER: Bian L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7412280 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

altmetric image

Publications

Foliage Intensity is an Important Cue of Habitat Location for <i>Empoasca onukii</i>.

Bian Lei L   Cai Xiao Ming XM   Luo Zong Xiu ZX   Li Zhao Qun ZQ   Chen Zong Mao ZM  

Insects 20200709 7


For many herbivorous insects, vision is more important than olfaction in the prealighting stage of host habitat location. Tea leafhoppers, <i>Empoasca onukii</i> (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae), are serious pests that preferentially inhabit the tender leaves of tea plants across China. Here, we investigated whether tea leafhoppers could distinguish foliage colors associated with different leaf ages and use this visual cue to guide suitable habitat location from short distances. Similar to honeybees, t  ...[more]

Similar Datasets

| S-EPMC5245864 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6175517 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6349920 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC7799657 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC8048321 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC4535498 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6361905 | biostudies-other
| S-EPMC6733243 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC3217240 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC6455042 | biostudies-literature