Differences in the sugar composition of the honeydew of polyphagous brown soft scale Coccus hesperidum (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea) feeding on various host plants

Abstract

Abstract. Plant chemical composition is an important determinant of host plant-insect interactions. For many insects sugars are the main factors determining the acceptability of a plant. This study investigated changes in plant chemical composition and differences in sugar composition of different host plants induced by the feeding of Coccus hesperidum L. (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea). Present in plant extracts and honeydew there were three monosaccharide sugars: glucose, fructose and arabinose, and one disaccharide -sucrose. Arabinose was only found in extracts of Ficus benjamina plants. The sugar content of the honeydew was greater than in the extracts of control plants and lower than that in the extracts of infested plants. The honeydew collected from C. hesperidum feeding on the three plant species differed significantly in sugar content. Extracts of coccid infested plants of the three species used in this study contained more sugar than the un-infested control plants. The results show that honeydew composition of scale insects differ and the differences reflect the chemical composition of the host plants.

The role of selected plant metabolites in host plant choice by caterpillars of Acrobasis advenella (Zincken, 1818) (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae)

“…The content of these metabolites is also a significant factor stimulating feeding. Their low content is an important factor governing the lack of acceptance mechanism (SEMPRUCH 2010, GOLAN & NAJDA 2011. This relationship has been documented in many herbivore species, such as The free choice test conducted as part of our research shows that L 1 larvae chose to feed in rowan fruits twice as often as in black chokeberry and almost 18 times more often than in hawthorn.…”

Morphological and electrophysiological analysis of tarsal sensilla in the medfly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…These sugars have been previously reported as present in extracts of Citrus species, some of which are host plants to C. capitata (Golan & Najda 2011). The chemical composition of each plant is well known to play an important role in host plant selection of the medflies, and sugars represent the main key factor that induces preference by the insect (Papachristos et al 2008).…”

Impact of scale insect infestation on the content of photosynthetic pigments and chlorophyll fluorescence in two host plant species

“…It damages plants directly and indirectly by excreting more honeydew on the leaves and fruit of the host plants than any other species (Copland and Ibrahim 1985). Because effective management of C. hesperidum is still a real problem worldwide, extensive efforts have been undertaken to characterise their impact on the host plants' biochemistry and physiology (Golan and Najda 2011;Golan 2013;Golan et al 2013).…”