Plant Stimuli and Their Impact on Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Dispersal and Host Selection

Abstract

A diverse diet in polyphagous insects satisfies changing nutritional needs but the choice of host plant may vary throughout the insect and plant life cycle. The behaviors associated with host choice in the immature stages may differ from the egg laying site chosen by the mother. To evaluate this for an important agricultural pest, we looked at host choice over two growing seasons for the invasive Halyomorpha halys. H. halys has a host breadth of over 170 known species in its invaded range and adults can satisfy nutritional needs through a strong dispersal capacity. Nymphs are more limited in their ability to choose host plants and we investigated if they make a choice that differs from the source plant (to simulate maternal choice) and characterized volatile organic compounds that are present during attraction. In a mark-release-recapture experiment we quantified dispersal and host choice by nymphs to four common vegetable hosts throughout the growing season. Applying an attraction index to quantify host choice we identified that nymphs switch host plants depending on host phenology. Plants with maturing fruits were most attractive. Volatile organic compounds were collected from host plants during the same time period. Multivariate and correlation analyses categorized phenol, undecane, decanal, and caryophyllene as compounds associated with host plants during peak attractive periods. Thus, the availability of suitable food and associated olfactory cues appears to be influencing the spatiotemporal distribution of H. halys within the agroecosystem. Exploiting dispersal behavior and olfactory cues may be used to help increase the effectiveness and efficiency of current management practices for this severe and widespread pest.

Trapping Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs: “The Nazgȗl” Lure and Kill Nets

“…The hedgerow study did show that lures increased the number of BMSB seen by beating, especially to sticky panels where the lures were exposed (unsurprising). The study was useful to confirm the most efficient combination of lure and trap under local conditions, and the results unsurprisingly confirmed an improvement from the higher loading, reported by Acebes-Doria et al [49]. The results helped with the development of the first hedgerow transect study, which showed significantly greater sensitivity of beating trays over traps while avoiding the potential bias caused by the attraction of BMSB to the pheromone.…”

Attraction of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs, Halyomorpha halys, to Blooming Sunflower Semiochemicals

“…Population densities of BMSBs appear to be linked to the presence of host plants at specific phenological stages (Blaauw et al 2019;Soergel et al 2015). Large populations are found on seeding plants (Nielsen et al 2016), implying that they are particularly appealing to BMSBs.…”

“…Hatching almost simultaneously from an egg mass (Endo et al 2019), first instar nymphs feed first on the surface of their egg chorion and in the process obtain essential gut symbionts deposited by their mother during oviposition (Taylor et al 2014). The physical well-being of all five nymphal instars is dependent upon the host plant (or its surrounding) selected by their mother which -in turn -may partially depend upon the plant's phenological stage (Blaauw et al 2019;Funayama 2004). Nymphs are incapable of flight but otherwise closely resemble adults.…”

“…BMSBs face the challenge of locating a most suitable host plant among hundreds of potential host plants (Leskey and Nielsen 2018). Repeated shifts in host plant preference by BMSBs throughout the season have been attributed to changing host plant phenology and to inadequate nutrients provided by a single host plant species (Blaauw et al 2019;Morrison et al 2016b;Nielsen et al 2016). In the mid-western US, BMSBs inflict significant damage to apple crops but cannot fully develop on apples alone (Funayama 2004).…”

“…As stink bugs commonly switch host plants throughout spring, summer and fall, they can cause damage to multiple crops (Tillman et al 2010;Todd 1989). For example, the invasive brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys, is known to discriminate among both different host plant species as well as among different phenological stages of single host plant species (Bergmann et al 2016;Blaauw et al 2019;Morrison et al 2016b;Nielsen et al 2016). However, the underlying mechanisms of host plant recognition by BMSBs are still unknown (Morrison et al 2018).…”