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Special Issue "Cross Talking between Insects and Environment"

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A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Physiology, Reproduction and Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 18600

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Aya Yanagawa

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Guest Editor

Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Uji 611-0011, Japan
Interests: disease defence mechanism in insects; olfactory; gustatory; immunology; biological control; entomopathogenic fungi; plant-insect interactions

Prof. Mamiko Ozaki

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Guest Editor

Department of Biology, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
Interests: chemical communication of social insects, especially molecular and neuronal bases of nestmate discrimination and social aggression in ants; feeding regulation in the fly via olfactory and gustatory sensing of foods and/or internal conditions plus memory

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

We are hosting a Special Issue entitled “Cross Talking between Insects and Environment. Current research is revealing many biological phenomena of physiological or neural insect reactions, but there we are still a long way from clarifying the reasons for and mechanisms of these interactions. This Special Issue aims to present physiological and behavioral reactions of insects to environmental cues. The environmental cues in this Special Issue will cover the insect reaction against generalist stimuli, such as chemical or mechanical cues from biological and abiological sources. Topics related to specific cues such as pheromones are also welcomed. We hope that this Special Issue will enlighten the insect world and that insects’ unique survival strategy in nature will contribute to establishing a sustainable ecosystem .

Dr. Aya Yanagawa
Prof. Mamiko Ozaki
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Environmental cues
physiology
neural cirsuit
learning
behavior

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessArticle

Antenna Cleaning Is Essential for Precise Behavioral Response to Alarm Pheromone and Nestmate–Non-Nestmate Discrimination in Japanese Carpenter Ants (Camponotus japonicus)

and

Insects 2021, 12(9), 773; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12090773 - 28 Aug 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2881

Abstract

Self-grooming of the antennae is frequently observed in ants. This antennal maintenance behavior is presumed to be essential for effective chemical communication but, to our knowledge, this has not yet been well studied. When we removed the antenna-cleaning apparatuses of the Japanese carpenter ant (C. japonicus) to limit the self-grooming of the antennae, the worker ants demonstrated the self-grooming gesture as usual, but the antennal surface could not be sufficiently cleaned. By using scanning electron microscopy with NanoSuit, we observed the ants’ antennae for up to 48 h and found that the antennal surfaces gradually became covered with self-secreted surface material. Concurrently, the self-grooming-limited workers gradually lost their behavioral responsiveness to undecane—the alarm pheromone. Indeed, their locomotive response to the alarm pheromone diminished for up to 24 h after the antenna cleaner removal operation. In addition, the self-grooming-limited workers exhibited less frequent aggressive behavior toward non-nestmate workers, and 36 h after the operation, approximately half of the encountered non-nestmate workers were accepted as nestmates. These results suggest that the antennal sensing system is affected by excess surface material; hence, their proper function is prevented until they are cleaned. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross Talking between Insects and Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Role of Cognition in the Annual Fall Migration of the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

Robert J. Gegear

Insects 2021, 12(8), 760; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12080760 - 23 Aug 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2563

Abstract

Each fall, monarch butterflies in eastern North America undergo an extraordinary long-distance migration to wintering areas in central Mexico, where they remain until returning northward in the spring. Migrants survive the overwintering period by metabolizing lipid reserves accumulated exclusively though floral nectar; however, there is little known about how individuals maximize foraging efficiency in the face of floral environments that constantly change in complex and unpredictable ways along their migratory route. Here, a proboscis extension paradigm is used to investigate the role of cognition during the foraging phase of monarch migration. Male and female migratory butterflies were consecutively trained to discriminate between two color and odor cues and then tested for their ability to simultaneously retain the information on the reward value of each cue in memory without reinforcement over a period of 7 days. To gain further insight into cognitive abilities of monarchs as a migratory species, a second set of captive-reared males and females were tested under harnessed conditions at the same time as wild-caught fall migrants. Results showed that male and female migrants can learn the reward properties of color and odor cues with over 75% accuracy after less than 40 s of exposure and can simultaneously retain visual and olfactory information predicting the availability of floral rewards in memory without reinforcement for at least 7 days. Captive-reared male butterflies also showed the ability to retain visual and olfactory information in long-term memory for 7 days; however, 80% of captive-reared females could not retain color cues in long-term memory for more than 24 h. These novel findings are consistent with the view that monarch butterflies, as a migratory species, have enhancements to long-term memory that enable them to minimize the amount of time and energy wasted searching for suitable nectar sources during their annual fall migration, thereby optimizing migratory performance and increasing the chance of overwinter survival. The possibility that female monarchs undergo a seasonal change in visual long-term memory warrants further empirical investigation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross Talking between Insects and Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Salivary Digestion Extends the Range of Sugar-Aversions in the German Cockroach

Ayako Wada-Katsumata

and

Coby Schal

Insects 2021, 12(3), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12030263 - 21 Mar 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2428

Abstract

Saliva has diverse functions in feeding behavior of animals. However, the impact of salivary digestion of food on insect gustatory information processing is poorly documented. Glucose-aversion (GA) in the German cockroach, Blattella germanica, is a highly adaptive heritable behavioral resistance trait that protects the cockroach from ingesting glucose-containing-insecticide-baits. In this study, we confirmed that GA cockroaches rejected glucose, but they accepted oligosaccharides. However, whereas wild-type cockroaches that accepted glucose also satiated on oligosaccharides, GA cockroaches ceased ingesting the oligosaccharides within seconds, resulting in significantly lower consumption. We hypothesized that saliva might hydrolyze oligosaccharides, releasing glucose and terminating feeding. By mixing artificially collected cockroach saliva with various oligosaccharides, we demonstrated oligosaccharide-aversion in GA cockroaches. Acarbose, an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor, prevented the accumulation of glucose and rescued the phagostimulatory response and ingestion of oligosaccharides. Our results indicate that pre-oral and oral hydrolysis of oligosaccharides by salivary alpha-glucosidases released glucose, which was then processed by the gustatory system of GA cockroaches as a deterrent and caused the rejection of food. We suggest that the genetic mechanism of glucose-aversion support an extended aversion phenotype that includes glucose-containing oligosaccharides. Salivary digestion protects the cockroach from ingesting toxic chemicals and thus could support the rapid evolution of behavioral and physiological resistance in cockroach populations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross Talking between Insects and Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Alarm Pheromone Responses Depend on Genotype, but Not on the Presence of Facultative Endosymbionts in the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Jean-Christophe Simon

Yannick Outreman

and

Sylvia Anton

Insects 2021, 12(1), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12010043 - 08 Jan 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1755

Abstract

Aphids use an alarm pheromone, E-β farnesene (EBF), to warn conspecifics of potential danger. The antennal sensitivity and behavioural escape responses to EBF can be influenced by different factors. In the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, different biotypes are adapted to different legume species, and within each biotype, different genotypes exist, which can carry or not Hamiltonella defensa, a bacterial symbiont that can confer protection against natural enemies. We investigate here the influence of the aphid genotype and symbiotic status on the escape behaviour using a four-way olfactometer and antennal sensitivity for EBF using electroantennograms (EAGs). Whereas the investigated three genotypes from two biotypes showed significantly different escape and locomotor behaviours in the presence of certain EBF doses, the infection with H. defensa did not significantly modify the escape behaviour and only marginally influenced the locomotor behaviour at high doses of EBF. Dose-response curves of EAG amplitudes after stimulation with EBF differed significantly between aphid genotypes in correlation with behavioural differences, whereas antennal sensitivity to EBF did not change significantly as a function of the symbiotic status. The protective symbiont H. defensa does thus not modify the olfactory sensitivity to the alarm pheromone. How EBF sensitivity is modified between genotypes or biotypes remains to be investigated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross Talking between Insects and Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Impact of 2.45 GHz Microwave Irradiation on the Fruit Fly, Drosophila melanogaster

Elie Desmond-Le Quemener

Jean-Philippe Steyer

and

Tomohiko Mitani

Insects 2020, 11(9), 598; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11090598 - 04 Sep 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2491

Abstract

The physiological and behavioral influences of 2.45 GHz microwaves on Drosophila melanogaster were examined. Standing waves transitioned into heat energy effectively when passing through the insect body. On the contrary, travelling waves did not transit into heat energy in the insect body. This indicated that there was no concern regarding the thermal effects of microwave irradiation for levels of daily usage. However, we detected genotoxicity and behavioral alterations associated with travelling wave irradiation, which can be attributed to the non-thermal effects of the waves. Electron spin resonance (ESR) revealed that fruit flies possessed paramagnetic substances in the body such as Fe³⁺, Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, and organic radicals. The temperature dependent intensities of these paramagnetic substances indicated that females possessed more of the components susceptible to electromagnetic waves than males, and the behavioral tests supported the differences between the sexes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross Talking between Insects and Environment)

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Review

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Open AccessReview

A Review of Effects of Environment on Brain Size in Insects

Thomas Carle

Insects 2021, 12(5), 461; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12050461 - 17 May 2021

Viewed by 2751

Abstract

Brain size fascinates society as well as researchers since it is a measure often associated with intelligence and was used to define species with high “intellectual capabilities”. In general, brain size is correlated with body size. However, there are disparities in terms of relative brain size between species that may be explained by several factors such as the complexity of social behaviour, the ‘social brain hypothesis’, or learning and memory capabilities. These disparities are used to classify species according to an ‘encephalization quotient’. However, environment also has an important role on the development and evolution of brain size. In this review, I summarise the recent studies looking at the effects of environment on brain size in insects, and introduce the idea that the role of environment might be mediated through the relationship between olfaction and vision. I also discussed this idea with studies that contradict this way of thinking. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross Talking between Insects and Environment)

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Open AccessReview

Recent Advancements in Studies on Chemosensory Mechanisms Underlying Detection of Semiochemicals in Dacini Fruit Flies of Economic Importance (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Hajime Ono

Alvin Kah-Wei Hee

and

Hongbo Jiang

Insects 2021, 12(2), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12020106 - 26 Jan 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2957

Abstract

Dacini fruit flies mainly contain two genera, Bactrocera and Zeugodacus, and include many important pests of fruits and vegetables. Their life cycle is affected by various environmental cues. Among them, multiple characteristic semiochemicals have remarkable effects on their reproductive and host-finding behaviors. Notably, floral fragrances released from so-called fruit fly orchids strongly attract males of several Dacini fruit fly species. Focusing on the strong attraction of male flies to particular chemicals, natural and synthetic lures have been used for pest management. Thus, the perception of semiochemicals is important to understand environmental adaptation in Dacini fruit flies. Since next-generation sequencers are available, a large number of chemosensory-related genes have been identified in Dacini fruit flies, as well as other insects. Furthermore, recent studies have succeeded in the functional analyses of olfactory receptors in response to semiochemicals. Thus, characterization of molecular components required for chemoreception is under way. However, the mechanisms underlying chemoreception remain largely unknown. This paper reviews recent findings on peripheral mechanisms in the perception of odors in Dacini fruit flies, describing related studies in other dipteran species, mainly the model insect Drosophilamelanogaster. Based on the review, important themes for future research have also been discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross Talking between Insects and Environment)

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