Antoine Guiguet

Naturalis Biodiversity Center | NCB

Many herbivorous insect species are capable of hijacking plant development to induce novel plant organs called galls. In most groups of galling insects, the insect organs and molecular signals involved in gall induction are poorly understood. We focused on gall wasps (Hymenoptera:Cynipidae), the second largest clade of gall inducers (~1,400 spp.),...

The morphology of insect-induced galls contributes to defences of the gall-inducing insect species against its natural enemies. In terms of gall chemistry, the only defensive compounds thus far identified in galls are tannins that accumulate in many galls, preventing damage by herbivores. Intrigued by the fruit-like appearance of the translucent oa...

Ants disperse oak galls of some cynipid wasp species similarly to how they disperse seeds with elaiosomes. We conducted choice assays in field and laboratory settings with ant-dispersed seeds and wasp-induced galls found in ant nests and found that seed-dispersing ants retrieve these galls as they do myrmecochorous seeds. We also conducted manipula...

Gracillariidae is the most species-rich leaf-mining moth family with over 2,000 described species worldwide. In Europe, there are 263 valid named species recognized, many of which are difficult to identify using morphology only. Here we explore the use of DNA barcodes as a tool for identification and species discovery in European gracillariids. We...

Supplementary Table S1 | Checklist of the 263 European Gracillariidae species following the higher classification of Kawahara et al. (2017), and species not included in the checklist. Supplementary Table S2 | Metadata of 6,791 COI sequences and 312 BINs used in this study. Supplementary Table S3 | Summary statistics for specimens included in this...

In insects, the gall-inducing lifestyle has evolved independently many times. several evolutionary pathways leading to this lifestyle have been proposed. While there is compelling evidence supporting surface-feeders and stem-borers as ancestral states of insect gall-inducers, an evolutionary pathway from leaf-miners remains hypothetical. Here we ex...

Leaves represent the main resource for herbivorous insects and their performances are mainly a function of leaf nutritional quality. Two feeding strategies are known to optimize the exploitation of leaf resources: leaf-miners that selectively feed on tissues of high nutritional quality and gall-inducers that induce the development of a new tissue s...

Location of the study site. Orange circles show trees used in phenology census and purple circles show trees used for detached leaf and larval translocation experiments. (TIF)

Geometrical estimate of leaf and leaf-mine area. (TIF)

Replicates of the leaf-mines cross-sections of the detached leaf experiment (Exp. 1) and the larva ablation experiment (Exp. 3). Cross-sections of leaf-mines at fourteen days after beginning of fourth instar (Ctrl.), at fourteen days after beginning of fourth instar on a detached leaf (D.), and at fourteen days after killing the larvae at late thir...

The meteological data of the study site in 2015 to 2017. All data derived from the observation point of Japan Meteorological Agency in Higashiomi town, which is the nearest observation point to the study site. (XLSX)

Plan of detached leaves and larval translocation experiments (Exp. 1 and Exp. 2). (TIF)

Plants constitute key nutritional resources for many organisms on Earth and protect these resources by enhancing interactions with mutualists while reducing interactions with antagonists. Interactions with different members of their ecological community can lead to a profound reconfiguration of the plant’s physiology, which favors beneficial organi...

Invasive insect herbivores have the potential to interfere with native multitrophic interactions by affecting the chemical cues emitted by plants and disrupting the attraction of natural enemies mediated by herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs). In a previous study, we found that the presence of the exotic herbivore Spodoptera littoralis on Bra...

Découverte de Mayetiola moliniae, espèce nouvelle pour la France à la réserve naturelle du Trou du Blanc à Gué d'Hossus. Cette découverte réalisée dans le cadre des activités des CNB et du GT Galles vient alimenter le "Projet Mayetiola" qui a pour ambition de faire progresser les connaissances sur les cécidomyies. Abstract : First record of Mayetio...

Several herbivorous insects and plant-associated microorganisms control the phytohormonal balance, thus enabling them to successfully exploit the plant by inhibiting plant defences and withdrawing plant resources for their own benefit. The leaf-mining moth Phyllonorycter blancardella modifies the cytokinin (CK) profile of mined leaf-tissues, and th...