CHEMICAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PARASITOIDS AND ORGANISMS FROM OTHER TROPHIC LEVELS

All the organisms in an ecosystem are biochemically linked. Semiochemicals elicit behavioral and physiological responses in the receiver, which results in the interaction between the donor and the receiver. Interspecific semiochemicals, called allelochemicals, connect all trophic levels and so help natural enemies to locate and recognize their hosts or prey. Also the host plants of herbivores are not neutral substrates, so herbivores and their natural enemies can respond to elicited cues. Many parasitoids respond to plant odors and many can also distinguish undamaged from host-infected or previously host-damaged plants. In this paper we present semiochemicals involved in food chain of aphid parasitoids.