Elsevier

Journal of Insect Physiology

Volume 51, Issue 11, November 2005, Pages 1255-1260
Journal of Insect Physiology

Evidence for trichromacy in the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulz.) (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinsphys.2005.07.002Get rights and content

Abstract

The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is an important phytophagous pest of greenhouse and field crops. In the host finding process visual cues are of paramount importance. In order to contribute to the understanding of the perception of visual stimuli in this species, we measured the electroretinogram of alate female summer migrants of M. persicae. The spectral sensitivity was measured in 10 nm steps under both dark and light adaptation from 320 to 640 nm. The dark adapted spectral sensitivity curve showed one maximum in the green region around 530 nm and a distinct shoulder between 500 and 510 nm. In presence of adapting light, a secondary blue–green peak (490 nm) and a third peak in the near UV (330–340 nm) were observed. From these results we conclude that M. persicae has three spectral types of photoreceptors.

Introduction

Myzus persicae is a serious phytophagous pest of greenhouse and field crops (Miles, 1989), acting indirectly as a vector of many virus diseases (Ossiannilsson, 1966; Sylvester, 1989; Radcliffe and Ragsdale, 2002), as well as directly by feeding on plant assimilates (Hoffmann and Schmutterer, 1999).

In the host finding process visual cues are of major importance (Moericke, 1955; Dixon, 1985; Klingauf, 1987; but see Chapman et al., 1981; Powell et al., 1995). There are numerous studies which substantiate the attractiveness of yellow targets to aphids during alighting flight (e.g., Moericke, 1951; Kring, 1967; González and Rawlins, 1968; Döring et al., 2004). The preference of many phytophagous insects species for yellow over green (Bernays and Chapman, 1994) has been interpreted as a super-normal foliage-type stimulus, where yellow reflects light with a greater intensity in the insect-visible wavelength range than green (Prokopy and Owens, 1983). Also, the repellence of metallised or plastic mulches (Smith et al., 1964; Heathcote, 1968; Loebenstein et al., 1975) has been attributed to their shortwave light-reflecting properties (Kring, 1964; Gibson and Rice, 1989), although the key wavelengths are still unknown (Döring et al., 2004). For a more comprehensive understanding of the behavioural reaction of animals to colours it is necessary to gain information about the physiological basis of the vision systems involved (Prokopy and Owens, 1983), namely the spectral sensitivity function. While for flower-visiting insects like adult Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera, the electrophysiological spectral sensitivity functions of many species are known, phytophagous life stages of insects are surprisingly underrepresented (Briscoe and Chittka, 2001). Until now, only the cabbage root fly, Delia radicum (L.) (Brown and Anderson, 1996), the western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Matteson et al., 1992), and—as the only phytophagous Homopteran species—the glasshouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Mellor et al., 1997) have been examined. Especially, there is no data regarding the spectral sensitivity of aphids yet (Prokopy and Owens, 1983; Gao et al., 2000; Kelber et al., 2003). Therefore, the aim of this study was to apply the electroretinogram (ERG) technique (Goldsmith and Bernard, 1974; Brown and Anderson, 1996; Scharstein and Stommel, 1999) to M. persicae in order to contribute to a better understanding of the spectral properties of the eye and host finding of this agriculturally most important aphid species.

Section snippets

Electroretinogram recordings

A 100 W xenon arc lamp (Osram XBO100W/2 OFR) was used as a light source in Xe-100 lamp housing device (UV-Gröbel, Ettlingen, Germany). Narrow bandpass filters (10 nm half-width, from Ealing Davin Optronics, Watford, UK) provided nearly monochromatic light in the wavelength range 320–640 nm in 10 nm steps. Neutral density filters (Ealing) allowed the intensity of light passing through the bandpass filters to be varied over approx. 2.5 log units. A manual shutter (T70 camera, Canon) produced 0.5 s

Form of the electroretinogram

Fig. 2 shows a typical dark adapted ERG recording elicited from M. persicae. It was found to be biphasic with a strong corneal negative on-response. The ERG reading was taken as the voltage difference between the pre-flash potential and the peak of the negative ERG component.

Spectral sensitivity

The spectral sensitivity of the dark adapted compound eye of M. persicae showed one peak of sensitivity at 530 nm (Fig. 3). No further peak could be found in the UV (320–400 nm). In the red region (620–640 nm) sensitivity was

Discussion

Under the chosen adaptation conditions, the green peach aphid showed three peaks of spectral sensitivity, one in the green region around 530 nm, a secondary blue–green peak (490 nm), and a third in the near UV (330–340 nm). From this we conclude that M. persicae possesses three types of photoreceptors.

The existence of a green receptor is evident from the clear peak at 530 nm in the sensitivity function of the dark and white adapted animals. With white adapting light, which reduces the sensitivity

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank M. Egelhaaf and R. Wodjinsky for kindly providing parts of the equipment, and L. Chittka, J. Spaehte, and T. Spehr for continual help and stimulating discussions. We especially thank T. Labhart for valuable suggestions regarding the experimental set-up and corrections on previous versions of the manuscript. We are in debt to C. Merx who helped in the aphid rearing process and Sophie von Lilienfeld-Toal for their assistance during the experiment. We are also grateful to R.

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