Cotesia marginiventri

That certain secondary metabolites from plants promote biodiversity has received experimental support. Thus, com, Zea mays, responds to the release of an amino acid ester, volicitin (Table 12.1), by a caterpillar, Spodoptera exigua, with the emission, at the foraging period of the day, of volatile mixtures of indole, monoterpenoids, and sesquiterpenoids. These attract a caterpillar predator, the female parasitic wasp, Cotesia marginiventris (Albom 1997). 

Fig. 2.3. A female of the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris attracted to the odor emitted by a maize leaf that has been damaged by a Spodoptera exigua larva.

Cotesia marginiventris Spodoptera spp. Maize, cotton, + Turlings et al., 1990, 1991a, 2002... 

Turhngs, T. C. J., Tumlinson, J. H., Heath, R. R Proveaux, A. T. and Doolittle, R. E. (1991b). Isolation and identification of allelochemicals that attract the larval parasitoid, Cotesia marginiventris (Cresson), to the microhabitat of one of its hosts. Journal of Chemical Ecology 17 2235-2251. 

Abscisic acid is a sequiterpene phytohormone that is induced by drought and promotes stomatal closure and seed dormancy. Other sesquiterpenes take part in tritrophic plant-herbivore-parasite interactions (reviewed by Dudareva et al., 2006). In maize infested with lepidopteran larvae, the sesquiterpenes ( )-P-famesene and the ( )-a-bergamotene (Fig. 30) attract the parasitic wasp Cotesia marginiventris (Schnee et al., 2006). Maize roots release ( )-P-caryophyllene (Fig. 30) upon attack of larvae of the beetle Diabrotica virgifera to attract the parasitic nematode Heterorhabditis megidis (Rasmann et al., 2005). 

Vojtech, E., M. Meissle, and G.M. Poppy. 2005. Effects of Bt maize on the herbivore Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera Noctuidae) and the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris (Hymenoptera Braconidae). Transgenic Res. 14 133-144. 

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