Peter D. Moore
Division of Biosphere Sciences
King's College
London
Parasitic wasps, which use nectar as a supply of energy, can detect sources by using odor cues. They are also able to locate their hosts by smells associated with them. Under experimental conditions, wasps have proved capable of learning complex associations between various odors and sources of either hosts or foods. They were then able to make choices based upon their relative hunger or motivation to lay eggs in their host organisms.
W.J. Lewis, K. Takasu, "Use of learned odors by a parasitic wasp in accordance with host and food needs," Nature, 348, 635-6, 13 December 1990. (United States Department of Agriculture, Tifton, Ga.; University of Georgia, Athens)
Tropical forest species diversity has sometimes been explained as a consequence of the survival of forest refugial communities in parts of the lowland tropics through the last "glacial" cold phase. Pollen data ...
