This presentation articulates four alternative models under consideration for explaining a large body of previously gathered data on onion fy (Delia antiqua) oviposition: behavioral chain, rolling-fulcum, jittery rolling fulcrum, and jittery neural math. The onion fly data will be compared to the predictions of each model. Serious incongruencies were found for the first three of these models, but not for the last. We suggest that this new jitter neural math model may be a general principle of resource acceptance by insect herbivores. Some possible ramifications of this new model to insect ecology, evolution, and control will be offered. The follow-up paper by P.Y. Giroux and J. R. Miller will present new tests of the jittery neural math model.
Species 1: Diptera Anthomyiidae Delia antiqua (onion fly)
Keywords: host selection, bet hedging
Back to Ten-Minute Papers, Subsection Cc. Insect Vectors in Relation to Plant Disease, Cf. Quantitative Ecology
Back to Ten-Minute Papers, Section Ca, Cb, Cc, Cd, Ce, and Cf
Back to The 2002 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition