September WEES - Honeydew mediates multi-trophic interactions
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Dear All,
With this email, we would like to invite you to September's Wageningen Evolution and Ecology Seminar (WEES) event!
The seminar will take place on Thursday, 19th September, 16:00 - 17:00 in Orion C2035. This will be followed by a gathering at the Spot.
The associated workshop will take place beforehand on Thursday, 19th September, 14:00 - 15:30 in Orion B4014. The workshop gives attendees the opportunity to meet the seminar’s speaker and discuss a hot topic in science. Furthermore, BSc and MSc students can get 1 ECTS for attending 2 workshops. Registration is required for this workshop, and you can sign up by emailing Liana Greenberg (liana.greenberg@wur.nl).
Please feel free to forward this information to anyone who could be interested!
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Seminar: Honeydew mediates multi-trophic interactions
Thursday 19th September 2024, 16:00 - 17:00, Orion C2035
Dr. Maite Fernandez de Bobadilla
Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias
Honeydew is the excretion product of many plant-feeding hemipterans and some lepidopterans. In general, more than 80% of honeydew dry matter contains sugars. In fact, honeydew is one of the most abundant and accessible sources of carbohydrates in natural ecosystems. In addition to sugars, honeydew can contain amino acids, micronutrients, sterols, and plant secondary metabolites. While some of these components reduce the nutritional value of honeydew (e.g. plant secondary metabolites), others increase it (e.g. antioxidant proteins). Even though the nutritional value of honeydew is highly variable, arthropods with different lifestyles feed on honeydew and rely on it as a carbohydrate source. Among these arthropods, many beneficial insects such as parasitoids, predators, and pollinators need honeydew for survival and reproduction. However, honeydew is not only consumed by beneficial arthropods, but also by some pests and hyperparasitoids in the adult stage. Moreover, some ant species have established mutualistic relationships with honeydew producers, feeding on honeydew and protecting the hemipterans from their natural enemies. Besides arthropods, many fungi and bacteria grow on honeydew. The high accessibility of honeydew and the numerous organisms that excrete it, feed on it, or use it as a source of infochemicals make honeydew a key driver of interactions between arthropods within and across different trophic levels.
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Workshop: Ant management to promote biological control of pests
Thursday 19th September 2024, 14:00 - 15:30, Orion B4014
Ants are one of the most dominant and abundant organisms in terrestrial environments, with around 13,000 species worldwide. Hölldobler & Wilson said, “when combined, all ants in the world taken together weigh about as much as all human beings.". An explanation for ants’ dominance is their ability to exploit very efficiently all ecosystems. Moreover, one of their keys to success is the numerous mutualistic interactions they are involved in. Among ants’ mutualisms, one of the best studied is the mutualism that ants have established with hemipterans that excrete honeydew. Ants protect honeydew producers against their natural enemies (predators and parasitoids) and receive food as a reward. While protecting honeydew producers, ants often disrupt the biological control of those pests. But not only are ants detrimental to biological control, several species of ants prey on important pest species and contribute to the biological control of those pests. Here, I will explain how ants promote or limit biological control of pests and explain strategies for ant management for pest suppression in agriculture.
To learn more about the ongoing work of Dr. Fernandez de Bobadilla and opportunities to join her research, you can visit https://maitebobadilla.com/ for more information!
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About WEES
WEES is an initiative from PhD students & postdocs at Wageningen University & Research.
We organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. For this series we invite researchers from all over the world who have leading roles in their field. We aim to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions. WEES is funded by the graduate schools PE&RC, WIMEK, EPS, and WIAS.
Want to organise seminars yourself? Join WEES!
WEES is looking for new members! We aim for a broad and diverse range in topics and would like to welcome new members to help and include topics not represented yet. If you are curious, send an email to weeswageningen@gmail.com and join one of our meetings.
For more information please visit www.weeswageningen.n and follow us on X @weeswageningen
On behalf of the WEES Committee
Website: weeswageningen.nl
Twitter: @weeswageningen