The bushhopper Phymateus leprosus (Fabricius) in the field shows a special appetite for the milkweed Asclepias fruticosa. Asclepiadaceae, like Apocynaceae and Scrophulariaceae, contain cardiac glycosides. Raw and purified extracts of these plants phagostimulate larval and adult P. leprosus. We also screened natural and half-synthetic compounds found in those plant extracts. While saponins and sapogenins did not stimulate the animals, many cardiac glycosides and aglycones, offered on filter paper, proved to be phagostimulants.
cardiac glycosides, African bushhopper, phagostimulants
NCBI PubMed ID: 10928557Publication DOI: 10.1515/znc-2000-5-621Journal NLM ID: 8912155Publisher: Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung
Correspondence: Gerhard.Kasang@t-online.de
Institutions: Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, Seewiesen, Germany
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