A neurophysiological study of sensitivity to a feeding deterrent in two sister species of Heliothis with different diet breadths

Abstract

Heliothis subflexa and H. virescens are sister species that differ markedly in their hostplant specificity: the former is a specialist on one plant genus, the latter feeds on plants from many families. The behavioral threshold for rejection of deterrent chemicals is lower in larvae of H. subflexa than in those of H. virescens. In this paper, we examine the responses of the galeal styloconic sensilla of these larvae to stimulation by three chemicals, sucrose and inositol, which are phagostimulants, and sinigrin, a deterrent, in an attempt to determine the neural basis for the differences in feeding behavior between the species. The species difference could not be attributed to differences in firing rate of the deterrent-sensitive cells, differences in the ratio of responses to phagostimulants and deterrents, differences in the rates of adaptation of the sensory neurons, or differences in the extent of interactions between chemicals at the peripheral sensilla. We conclude that the differences between the species probably result from differences in processing sensory information within the central nervous system.