Advances in Insect Chemical Ecology

Hardback  346 pp 31 diags 13 half-tones 2 col plates 36 figs  ISBN 0521792754      £60.00

Please note - this title is NOT available until April 2004

Chemical signals mediate all aspects of insects€ lives and their ecological interactions. The discipline of chemical ecology seeks to unravel these interactions by identifying and defining the chemicals involved, and documenting how perception of these chemical mediators modifies behavior and ultimately reproductive success. Chapters in this volume consider how plants use chemicals to defend themselves from insect herbivores; the complexity of floral odors that mediate insect pollination; tritrophic interactions of plants, herbivores, and parasitoids and the chemical cues that parasitoids use to find their herbivore hosts; the semiochemically-mediated behaviors of mites; pheromone communication in spiders and cockroaches; the ecological dependency of tiger moths on the chemistry of their host-plants; and the selective forces that shape the pheromone communication channel of moths. The volume presents descriptions of the chemicals involved, the effects of semiochemically-mediated interactions on reproductive success, and the evolutionary pathways that have shaped the chemical ecology of arthropods.

Contents

Preface; 1. Phytochemical diversity of insect defenses in tropical and temperate plant families John T. Arason, Gabriel Guillet and Tony Durst; 2. Recruitment of predators and parasitoids by herbivore-injured plants Ted C. J. Turlings and Felix Wäckers; 3. Chemical ecology of astigmatid mites Yasumasa Kuwahara; 4. Semiochemistry of spiders Stefan Schulz; 5. Why do flowers smell? The chemical ecology of fragrance-driven pollination Robert A. Raguso; 6. Sex pheromones of cockroaches César Gemeno and Coby Schal; 7. A quest for alkaloids: curious relationship between tiger moths and plants containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids William E. Conner and Susan J. Weller; 8. Structure of the pheromone communication channel in moths Ring T. Cardé and Kenneth F. Haynes; Index