Speaker
Markus Knaden
(Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany)
Description
Most insects do not provide any direct care for their offspring. Therefore, it is crucial that female insects carefully judge oviposition sites and lay their eggs at places that provide good conditions for their offspring’s survival. To do so, ovipositing insects often evaluate the suitability of an oviposition site based on innate preferences. However, we recently could show that in addition oviposition experience can drive the female insects’ decision. Here I will show how such experience can influence oviposition behavior in flies and moths and can finally result in “oviposition constancy”, i.e. a behaviour similar to “flower constancy” observed in bees.
Authors
Mr
Eduardo Briceño-Aguilar
(Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany)
Mr
Julio Otárola-Jiménez
(Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany)
Markus Knaden
(Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany)
