Spruce budworm feeding and oviposition are stimulated by monoterpenes in white spruce epicuticular waxes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Monoterpenes, source of the distinctive odor of conifers, are generally considered plant defensive compounds. However, they are also known to act as long-range insect attractants, as they are volatile and permeate forest airspaces. Moreover, they are lipid soluble and can be absorbed into plant epicuticular waxes. We test their role in short-range host plant choice by both adult females and larvae of a folivorous forest pest (Choristoneura fumiferana). We conducted laboratory assays testing the responses of Eastern spruce budworm to an artificial monoterpene mix (α-pinene, β-pinene, limonene, myrcene) and to white spruce (Picea glauca) epicuticular waxes in closed arenas. Ovipositing females preferred filter paper discs treated with P. glauca waxes to controls, and preferred the waxes + monoterpenes treatment to waxes alone. However, females showed no preference between the monoterpene-treated disc and the control when presented without waxes. Feeding larvae prefered wax discs to control discs. They also consumed discs treated with realistic monoterpene concentrations and wax preferentially over wax-only discs, but showed no preference between extremely high monoterpene concentrations and wax-only controls. In an insect-free assay, P. glauca epicuticular wax decreased monoterpene volatilization. These results suggest that P. glauca waxes and realistic concentrations of monoterpenes are stimulatory to both egg-laying females and feeding larvae, and that their effects are synergistic.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".