Insect Plant Interactions

The authoritative overviews in this volume provide a wealth of practical information on current approaches to the study of insect-plant interactions. Methods described include direct behavioral observation; assays of host finding, oviposition, and feeding behavior of insect herbivores; post-ingestion physiological effects; measurement of food quality and sensory responses of insects to plant stimuli; chemical isolation and identification of active phytochemicals; evaluation of plant resistance to insects; and the biochemistry of allelochemic interactions.

In Virus-Insect-Plant Interactions, the world's leading scientists discuss the latest breakthroughs in understanding the biological and ecological factors that define these complex transmission systems and how this knowledge might be used to our advantage in producing innovative, user and environmentally friendly approaches to controlling the spread of plant pathogens by insects. This is an invaluable reference work for researchers, teachers, and students. There are many quick-reference figures and tables, the contents pages include individual chapter abstracts, and each chapter ends with its own bibliography. Presents the most significant research breakthroughs of the past two decades Contains eighteen chapters by forty-two world-renowned researchers Invaluable reference work for researchers, teachers and students Each chapter ends with its own bibliography Contents pages of forematter include individual chapter abstracts Contains many quick-reference figures and tables

As food producers, plants are constantly under attack by insects. Over the course of evolution, plants have not only developed a sophisticated defense apparatus but have also refined biochemical defense mechanisms to protect themselves, thereby maintaining the ecological balance. Plant-pest interactions induce an elaborate array of reactions involving the release of volatile compounds, effector and signaling molecules, trans-membrane proteins, and a variety of enzymes and hormones. This book offers a comprehensive guide to the strategies that plants employ against insects and other pests to ensure their continued survival. Addressing an important gap in the literature, it shares the latest findings in the field of plant–pest interactions for a broad audience. Providing an overview of the current state of knowledge on plant-pest interactions and their role in the genetic improvement of crops, it offers an essential guide for researchers and professionals in the fields of agriculture, plant pathology, entomology, cell biology, molecular biology and genetics.

Volume 5 of "Insect-Plant Interactions" is a volume in a series that presents research in the field. Topics covered include chemical changes in plants as a result of insects feeding on their leaves, dynamic elements of the use and avoidance of host plants by tephritid flies as a result of the presence of other flies, floral volatiles in insect biology, endophytic fungi as mediators of plant insect interactions, the cost of chemical defence against herbivory, and life history traits on insect herbivores in relation to host quality. The book also presents the first available review on physicochemical conditions of the gut lumen from an ecological perspective.

Insect-Plant Interactions is a series devoted to reviews across the breadth of the topic from cellular mechanisms to ecology and evolution. Articles are selected from areas of particular current interest or subjects that would especially benefit from a new review. It is hoped that the interdisciplinary selection in each volume will help readers to enter new fields of insect-plant interactions. Volume II contains six very different articles.

Presents the first efforts to explore ecological interactions between insects and plants across several trophic levels, with special focus on mediation of complex interactions by plant allelochemicals. First section looks at effects of plant allelochemicals on predator-prey and host-parasitoid interactions. Second section reveals the role of microorganisms as mediators of interactions between insects and plants. Third section unifies and extends current theory to examine the effects of allelochemicals on the second and third trophic levels. Final section traces the physiological effects of plant allelochemicals in animal behavior, population regulation, maintenance of mimicry systems, and evolution of host range.

Botanists and zoologists have recognized for centuries the specificity of various insects for plants, and entomolo gists have long been aware that insects defend themselves from predators by emitting repulsive odors. Only recently have chemists and biologists established a joint endeavor for studying the chemical relationships between plants and insects. The present symposium volume of the Phytochemical Society of North America's RECENT ADVANCES IN PHYTOCHEMISTRY consists of eight papers dealing with phytochemical relation ships between plants and their insect herbivores. The fifteenth P.S.N.A. annual symposium and meeting was held in August, 1975, on the campus of The University of South Florida, Tampa. The chemical defenses of apparent and unapparent plants were contrasted by Feeny. Rodreguiz and Levin illustrated parallel defense mechanisms of plants and insects and then Hendry, Kostelc, Hindenlang, Wichmann, Fix and Koreniowski discussed chemical messengers for both plants and insects. Subsequently Beck and Reese reviewed plant contributions to insect nutrition and metabolism. Indepth studies for the monarch butterfly-milkweed interaction were presented by Roeske, Seiber, Brower, and Moffitt and for the cotton boll weevil-cotton plant relationship by Hedin, Thompson, and Gueldner. In the latter portion of the symposium Rhoades and Cates presented a general theory concerning the coevolu tion of insects and plant antiherbivore chemistry.