Tri-Trophic Effects of Seasonally Variable Induced Plant Defenses Vary across the Development of a Shelter Building Moth Larva and Its Parasitoid

Plant chemical defenses can negatively affect insect herbivore fitness, but they can also decrease herbivore palatability to predators or decrease parasitoid fitness, potentially changing selective pressures on both plant investment in production of chemical defenses and host feeding behavior. Larvae of the fern moth Herpetogramma theseusalis live in and feed upon leaf shelters of their own construction, and their most abundant parasitoid Alabagrus texanus oviposits in early instar larvae, where parasitoid larvae lay dormant for most of host development before rapidly developing and emerging just prior to host pupation. As such, both might be expected to live in a relatively constant chemical environment. Instead, we find that a correlated set of phenolic compounds shows strong seasonal variation both within shelters and in undamaged fern tissue, and the relative level of these compounds in these two different fern tissue types switches across the summer. Using experimental feeding treatments, in which we exposed fern moth larvae to different chemical trajectories across their development, we show that exposure to this set of phenolic compounds reduces the survival of larvae in early development. However, exposure to this set of compounds just before the beginning of explosive parasitoid growth increased parasitoid survival. Exposure during the period of rapid parasitoid growth and feeding decreased parasitoid survival. These results highlight the spatial and temporal complexity of leaf shelter chemistry, and demonstrate the developmental contingency of associated effects on both host and parasitoid, implying the existence of complex selective pressures on plant investment in chemical defenses, host feeding behavior, and parasitoid life history.