Figure 5.

Oviposition behavior of M. sexta in the laboratory. In all cases single mated females were offered a choice between a control and a test plant in a flight tent (as shown in Figure 1C) and allowed to oviposit during 10 min after take-off. Plant pairs of the jimsonweed D. wrighttii (A–D) or tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) (E) were used. In(A) two control plants were offered to control for spatial asymmetries (n = 25). The following experimental series were conducted: (B) a plant with a newly opened flower vs. a plant with a paper flower (n = 12); (C,D) a plant with a paper flower loaded with (+)-linalool ((C), n = 16) or (–)-linalool ((D), n = 16) vs. a plant with a paper flower loaded with solvent (linalool was loaded in the paper flowers at the naturally-occurring concentrations); (E) a larva-damaged plant vs. an intact plant (n = 38). Data represent the percentage (average ± SE) of eggs oviposited in each plant. Moths and plant pairs were used only once. Asterisks indicate significant differences (p < 0.05; Sign tests). Green-hue and red-hue colors, respectively indicate oviposition attraction or repellence for the experimental plant (Data modified from Reisenman et al., 2010, 2013).