Effects of Drought on the Production of Electrophysiologically Active Biogenic Volatiles Important for Cereal Pest Management

Abstract

Drought has the potential to reset trophic interactions within natural and managed ecosystems. I tested how drought stress in maize and companion plants that are used in cereal agroecosystems of Kenya affect oviposition preference, larval feeding, and development of the spotted stemborer, Chilo partellus Swinhoe (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). Five host species were tested (all Poaceae): maize (Zea mays L.), Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach), signal grass [Brachiaria brizantha (A. Rich) Stapf], Brachiaria cv ‘Mulato’, and molasses grass [Melinis minutiflora (Beauv.)]. Under periods of water deficit, maize was oviposited on as much as under control unstressed maize in both choice and no-choice experiments. Similarly, larval leaf damage was not significantly different in drought-stressed and unstressed maize. However in Napier and signal grasses, oviposition occurred less on drought-stressed than on unstressed corresponding individuals of the same species. Oviposition acceptance and foliar damage remained low in both drought-stressed and unstressed molasses grass and Mulato. Larval survival and development remained high in drought-stressed maize, but not in Napier, signal, and molasses grass and Mulato, where survival and development were low in both drought-stressed and unstressed plants. Drought stress resulted in increased total plant volatile emission in Napier and signal grasses. This significant change in total volatile emission of the plants upon stress was not present in molasses grass, Mulato II, Silverleaf and Greenleaf Desmodium despite variable changes in the quantities and qualities of particular constituent compounds among all the plant species during water deficit. In wind tunnel bioassays, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from irrigated Napier and signal grasses were more attractive to C. partellus than the treatment plants. However, volatiles from molasses grass, Mulato II, Silverleaf and Greenleaf Desmodium were never preferred by the gravid moths in both irrigated and drought stressed conditions. These changes in chemical constituents of the plant VOCs also elicited behavioural responses in parasitoids. Drought-stressed Napier grass attracted gravid Cotesia sesamiae parasitoids. Other companion plant species such as molasses grass and Mulato which constitutively emit these terpenes remained attractive to the parasitoids even under periods of drought. I attribute this differential preference of the moths to the constitutive and/or induced emission of key terpenoid compounds in plants that were tested. The induction of terpenoid compounds was coupled with a reduction in the amount of green leaf volatiles such as (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate in Napier and signal grasses. Taken together, the results suggest that control of stemborer pests using stimulo-deterrent diversion tactics remains possible under periods of environmental change.