Feeding experience enhances attraction of female Diaprepes abbreviatus (L.) (Coleoptera : Curculionidae) to food plant odors

Learning in insects is broadly defined as a temporary modification of behavioral responsiveness as a result of experience (Papaj and Prokopy, 1989). According to Papaj and Prokopy (1989) and Thorpe (1993), a decline in a response in the absence of continued experience is another criterion that can be used to specify learning in insects. Learning in phytophagous insects may be manifested as altered responses to host plants following some type of experience. Individual insects exposed to different foods tend to select the food they most recently accepted and experienced, compared to novel foods (Papaj and Prokopy, 1989). Previous experience with a plant or its odor affects the behavior of many adult insects, such as Battus philenor (L.) (Papaj, 1986a,b), Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Visser and Thiery, 1986), and Trichoplusia ni (Hubner) (Landolt and Molina, 1996). In the pipevine swallowtail butterfly B. philenor, the positive effect of exposure to one food plant species on food acceptance was reversed by exposure to a second food plant species (Papaj et al., 1986a). Diaprepes abbreviatus is a polyphagous insect that feeds on foliage of at least 76 plant species (Martorell, 1976). The weevils are attracted to odors of food plants (Beavers et al., 1982; Harari and Landolt, 1997) and form aggregations on or near new growth of host trees (Beavers et al., 1982). Aggregations