No abstract

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) present a model system in the investigation of tritrophic interactions mediated by plant secondary compounds. However, their toxicity for insect herbivores has never been experimentally proven. Here, we demonstrate the toxic effects of a PA on growth and survival of the eri silk moth Philosamia ricini. In a feeding experiment, larvae of this generalist herbivore fed with an artificial PA diet gained weight significantly slower than control animals, and died as pupae. We suggest that derivatives of the ingested PA N-oxide damage developmental functions during metamorphosis. A tracer test with [ 14 C]senecionine N-oxide revealed that the caterpillars lack adaptations that would prevent conversion of the chemical into the pro-toxic free base. In contrast, the PA adapted leaf beetle Longitarsus anchusae accumulates PAs as N-oxides. We tested the purpose of sequestration in this species as defence against predators. Through a series of prey choice experiments with three carabid predator species, chemically non-protected bark beetle pupae were chosen almost uniformly over L. anchusae pupae. In a following choice test with one of these predators, artificially PA-treated mealworm segments deterred the predator from feeding. Overall the study corroborates the immediate toxic effect of PAs on non-adapted herbivores and the protective effect that adapted insects may gain by sequestering them. It thereby underlines the potential for PAs to play a central role in multitrophic interactions between plants, phytophages and their predators.

During recent decades, the 2 distinct harbour porpoise populations of the Baltic Sea have decreased sharply in abundance. The Baltic Proper population is down to a few hundred individuals and is regarded as 'Critically Endangered' by IUCN; the more abundant Belt Sea population also appears to have experienced a severe decline. We summarize the results of extensive static acoustic monitoring in the German part of the Baltic Sea and compare them to published results of aerial and acoustic surveys. Acoustic monitoring confirmed seasonal changes in detection rates consistent with proposed east -west migrations. Detection rates, and thus presumably porpoise density, decrease from west to east from a long-term mean ( in Kadet Trench to 4.4% DPD mo −1 in Pomeranian Bay as one crosses the putative population boundary. Acoustic monitoring results show a recent increase in porpoise registration rates in the Kadet Trench and in Pomeranian Bay, although this does not necessarily indicate a population increase. This large dataset supports the previously suggested proposition that each population uses the boundary waters in Pomeranian Bay alternately, leading to the presence of registration peaks in (late) summer by Belt Sea porpoises, and in winter by Baltic Proper animals. The critical status of porpoises in the Baltic Sea highlights the urgent need for protective measures which still await national and international implementation.

Several Longitarsus flea beetle species sequester pyrrolizidine alkaloids acquired from their Asteraceae and Boraginaceae host plants. We carried out feeding and injection experiments using radioactively labeled pyrrolizidine alkaloids to investigate the physiological mechanisms of uptake, metabolism and storage of alkaloids in adult beetles. We examined six Longitarsus species belonging to different phylogenetic clades in a comparative approach. All species that accepted pyrrolizidine alkaloids in a preceding food choice study showed the ability both to store pyrrolizidine alkaloid N-oxides and to metabolize tertiary pyrrolizidine alkaloids into their N-oxides. Regardless of whether the beetles' natural host plants contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids or not, these species were found to possess an oxidizing enzyme. This oxygenase appears to be specific to pyrrolizidine alkaloids: [3H]Atropine and [14C]nicotine, two alkaloids not related to pyrrolizidine alkaloids, were neither stored nor N-oxidized by any of the tested species. One species, L. australis, that strictly avoids pyrrolizidine alkaloids behaviorally, exhibited a lack of adaptations to pyrrolizidine alkaloids on a physiological level as well. After injection of tertiary [14C]senecionine, beetles of this species neither N-oxidized nor stored the compounds, in contrast to L. jacobaeae, an adapted species that underwent the same treatment. L. jacobaeae demonstrated the same efficiency in N-oxidation and storage when fed or injected with tertiary [14C]senecionine.