Temperature affects interaction of visual and vibrational cues in parasitoid host location

Abstract

Parasitoid host location in nature is facilitated by simultaneously using different information sources. How multisensory orientation on the same spatial scale is influenced by environmental conditions is however poorly understood. Here we test whether changes in reliability of cues can cause parasitoids to alter multisensory orientation and to switch to cues that are more reliable under extreme temperatures. In the ichneumonid wasp Pimpla turionellae, multisensory use of thermally insensitive vision and thermally sensitive mechanosensory host location by vibrational sounding (echolocation on solid substrate) was investigated with choice experiments on plant-stem models under optimum temperature (18 degrees C), at high- (28 degrees C) and low-temperature limits (8 degrees C) of vibrational sounding. Temperature affected relative importance of vibrational sounding whereas visual orientation did not vary. At 18 degrees C, parasitoids used visual and vibrational cues with comparable relative importance. At 8 and 28 degrees C, the role of vibrational sounding in multisensory orientation was significantly reduced in line with decreased reliability. Wasps nearly exclusively chose visual cues at 8 degrees C. The parasitoids switch between cues and sensory systems depending on temperature. As overall precision of ovipositor insertions was not affected by temperature, the parasitoids fully compensate the loss of one cue provided another reliable cue is available on the same spatial scale.