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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Maintaining Biological Cultures and Measuring Gene Expression in Aphis nerii: A Non-model System for Plant-insect Interactions

Maintaining Biological Cultures and Measuring Gene Expression in Aphis nerii: A Non-model System for Plant-insect Interactions

Published on: August 31, 2018

Altruistic defence behaviours in aphids.

Gi-Mick Wu¹, Guy Boivin, Jacques Brodeur

¹Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada. mick.wu@mail.mcgill.ca

BMC Evolutionary Biology

|January 22, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Aphid cornicle secretions are altruistic, benefiting clone-mates without direct gain to the individual. This kin-directed defense behavior increases with the number of nearby aphids, supporting kin selection theory outside of eusocial insects.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Behavioral Ecology
Insect Behavior

Background:

Altruistic behaviors, costly to the actor and beneficial to recipients, are evolutionarily challenging.
Kin selection provides a framework for altruism, but direct benefits or coercion complicate anti-predator behavior analysis.
Parthenogenetically reproducing aphids offer a model system to study altruism due to their clonal colonies.

Purpose of the Study:

To test the altruistic nature of aphid cornicle secretions.
To assess direct and indirect fitness consequences of cornicle secretion release.
To investigate the influence of clone-mate numbers on the expression of this behavior.

Main Methods:

Observed parasitoid (Aphidius rhopalosiphi) interactions with cereal aphids (Sitobion avenae) in varying colony sizes.
Assessed parasitism rates and parasitoid behavior (grooming, foraging, oviposition) after contact with secretions.
Quantified the relationship between individual smearing rate and the number of clone-mates.

Main Results:

Aphids smearing secretions did not experience reduced parasitism or increased parasitoid handling time.
Parasitoids exposed to secretions spent more time grooming, reducing their host-encounter and oviposition rates.
The rate of cornicle secretion release increased with the number of available clone-mates.

Conclusions:

Aphid cornicle secretions function as an altruistic anti-predator behavior, providing indirect fitness benefits to neighboring clone-mates.
The behavior's expression is consistent with altruism, as it scales with the potential for indirect benefits (more clone-mates).
This study presents evidence for kin-directed altruistic defense in a non-eusocial animal.