A poison as an Indicater of food
November 19th, 2011The western corn rootworm causes about one billion dollars in damage in the U.S. alone. They form crowns in the soil that supply nutrients for their larvae but as the same time it intoxicates the nutrients for the corn. Crown roots are richer in the sucrose which is used to fill the appetite of the bugs, “The plant places its defense priorities on tissues that are valuable to it.” states Christelle Robert, PhD student. To protect its tissues, maize relies on toxins The experiments revealed that the larvae not only tolerate the poison, but they even use it to locate the zones rich in nutritional substances, in this case crown roots. That is why the insects use the
I found this article interesting because the bugs were not harmed by the toxins but helped by them instead. I thought it was also very interesting that these toxic materials were causing so much damage in the U.S. alone. Another interesting thing about this article was that the crown roots hold nutrients for the larva.