Finding a mating partner is of crucial
importance for sexually reproducing organisms. In most insects, the
chemical sense plays a decisive role in this task. Students prepare
talks on selected topics of insect sexual communication based on
recently published original papers. Subsequently, the talks are
critically discussed by the participants and students obtain feedback on
their presentations. In two preliminary seminars participants will be
instructed how to prepare a good talk (structure of a talk, presentation
skills, design of slides etc.) and how to deal with scientific
literature (literature survey, citation management etc.). Covered topics
include:
- Long range attraction by sex pheromones
- Mate recognition and mate assessment
- Aphrodisiac and anti-aphrodisiac pheromones
- Influence of nutrition on pheromone communication
- Plasticity of pheromone responses
- Influence of insecticides on pheromone communication
- Interaction of plant volatiles and sex pheromones
- Use of pheromones in nature conservation and insect control
