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Red oilseed rape? The potential for manipulation of petal colour in control strategies for the pollen beetle (Meligethes aeneus)

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Abstract

The pollen beetle (Meligethes aeneus) is a major pest of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) at the inflorescence stage and is well known to prefer colours called yellow by human observers over many other colours. While commercial cultivars of oilseed rape have yellow flowers, little is known about the potential to manipulate host plant location and reduce subsequent infestation by this pest through variation in flower colour. We investigated the responses of pollen beetles to flowers of a white-petalled oilseed rape variety that had been dyed different colours in semi-field arena and field experiments. Flowers dyed blue or red were less heavily infested than those dyed yellow or the white flowers, indicating that blue and red flowers were less attractive than yellow and white ones. This response was most likely due to differences in petal colour because olfactometer studies showed that beetle responses to the odours of the coloured treatments did not differ. The comparatively high infestation of untreated white flowers is interpreted as a consequence of their high UV reflectance; the presence of a UV receptor in M. aeneus is suggested, and its role in visually guided insect–plant interactions in this species described. The potential for manipulation of petal colour in control strategies for the pollen beetle is discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Rosemary Collier and Graham Teakle at The University of Warwick Crop Centre for early discussions on this work, Darren Murray at VSNi for statistical advice, Christine Trittermann for technical assistance, Ingrid Williams for her support throughout this work and Peter Werner at CPB Twyford (now KWS-UL Ltd) for supplying seed of the white-petalled oilseed rape breeders line. We thank Lars Chittka at the Queen Mary University, London, and two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments that helped to improve this manuscript. This work was funded by the UK Department for Food and Rural Affairs. Rothamsted Research is a national institute of bioscience strategically funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

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  1. Thomas F. Döring

    Present address: The Organic Research Centre, Elm Farm, Hamstead Marshall, RG20 0HR, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK

    Samantha M. Cook, Matthew P. Skellern & John A. Pickett

  2. Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK

    Thomas F. Döring

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  1. Samantha M. Cook
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Correspondence to Samantha M. Cook.

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Cook, S.M., Skellern, M.P., Döring, T.F. et al. Red oilseed rape? The potential for manipulation of petal colour in control strategies for the pollen beetle (Meligethes aeneus). Arthropod-Plant Interactions 7, 249–258 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-013-9252-5

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