TY - JOUR
T1 - Onion fly (Delia antiqua) egg depositional behaviour
T2 - Pinpointing host acceptance by an insect herbivore
AU - Mowry, Thomas M.
AU - Spencer, Joseph L.
AU - Keller, James E.
AU - Miller, James R.
PY - 1989
Y1 - 1989
N2 - Egg deposition by the onion fly, Delia antiqua (Meigen), consisted of an almost completely deterministic behavioural sequence including Subsurface Probing, Egg Into Bursa, Stationary Phase, Ovipositor Contractility and Egg Expulsion. Ancillary behaviours, such as body repositioning, leg grooming and mouthpart extension, occurred during, but not between, the sequential behaviours. Stationary Phase duration (mean ± SEM = 18 ± 0 s) was less variable than the durations for other behavioural states, indicating a very precise timing mechanism associated with fertilization. Small, but significant, shortening of the ovipositor from Subsurface Probing (3.7 mm) to Egg Into Bursa (3.2 mm) to Stationary Phase (2.9 mm) suggests exact positioning of the egg for fertilization. The command to move an egg, sent during Subsurface Probing, marks the boundary between examining and consuming behaviours and appears to be associated with a switch from motor programmes generating highly probabilistic predepositional behaviour to a programme generating deterministic depositional behaviour. Onion fly egg deposition is a fixed action pattern possibly triggered by mechanosensory and/or chemosensory input received by ovipositor setae during Subsurface Probing. This deterministic depositional behaviour contrasts with the recently preceding unfixed, sensory-dependent predepositional examining behaviours. Hence, for D. antiqua, egg movement is synonymous with ovipositional host acceptance.
AB - Egg deposition by the onion fly, Delia antiqua (Meigen), consisted of an almost completely deterministic behavioural sequence including Subsurface Probing, Egg Into Bursa, Stationary Phase, Ovipositor Contractility and Egg Expulsion. Ancillary behaviours, such as body repositioning, leg grooming and mouthpart extension, occurred during, but not between, the sequential behaviours. Stationary Phase duration (mean ± SEM = 18 ± 0 s) was less variable than the durations for other behavioural states, indicating a very precise timing mechanism associated with fertilization. Small, but significant, shortening of the ovipositor from Subsurface Probing (3.7 mm) to Egg Into Bursa (3.2 mm) to Stationary Phase (2.9 mm) suggests exact positioning of the egg for fertilization. The command to move an egg, sent during Subsurface Probing, marks the boundary between examining and consuming behaviours and appears to be associated with a switch from motor programmes generating highly probabilistic predepositional behaviour to a programme generating deterministic depositional behaviour. Onion fly egg deposition is a fixed action pattern possibly triggered by mechanosensory and/or chemosensory input received by ovipositor setae during Subsurface Probing. This deterministic depositional behaviour contrasts with the recently preceding unfixed, sensory-dependent predepositional examining behaviours. Hence, for D. antiqua, egg movement is synonymous with ovipositional host acceptance.
KW - Delia antiqua
KW - Onion fly
KW - behavioural sequence
KW - egg laying
KW - fixed action pattern
KW - oviposition
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U2 - 10.1016/0022-1910(89)90082-6
DO - 10.1016/0022-1910(89)90082-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:38249022257
SN - 0022-1910
VL - 35
SP - 331
EP - 339
JO - Journal of insect physiology
JF - Journal of insect physiology
IS - 4
ER -