Animals can alter their foraging behavior through associative learning, where an encounter with an essential resource (e.g., food or a reproductive opportunity) is associated with nearby environmental cues (e.g., volatiles). This can subsequently improve the animal’s foraging efficiency. However, when these associated cues are encountered again, the anticipated resource is not always present. Such an unrewarding experience, also called a memory-extinction experience, can change an animal’s response to the associated cues. Although some studies are available on the mechanisms of this process, they rarely focus on cues and rewards that are relevant in an animal’s natural habitat. In this study, we tested the effect of different types of ecologically relevant memory-extinction experiences on the conditioned plant volatile preferences of the parasitic wasp Cotesia glomerata that uses these cues to locate its caterpillar hosts. These extinction experiences consisted of contact with only host traces (frass and silk), contact with nonhost traces, or oviposition in a nonhost near host traces, on the conditioned plant species. Our results show that the lack of oviposition, after contacting host traces, led to the temporary alteration of the conditioned plant volatile preference in C. glomerata, but this effect was plant species-specific. These results provide novel insights into how ecologically relevant memory-extinction experiences can fine-tune an animal’s foraging behavior. This fine-tuning of learned behavior can be beneficial when the lack of finding a resource accurately predicts current, but not future foraging opportunities. Such continuous reevaluation of obtained information helps animals to prevent maladaptive foraging behavior.

中文翻译：

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记忆消退和自发恢复塑造寄生蜂觅食行为


动物可以通过联想学习改变它们的觅食行为，其中遇到重要资源（例如食物或繁殖机会）与附近的环境线索（例如挥发物）相关。这随后可以提高动物的觅食效率。然而，当再次遇到这些相关线索时，预期的资源并不总是存在。这种无回报的经历，也称为记忆消退经历，可以改变动物对相关线索的反应。尽管有一些关于这一过程机制的研究，但它们很少关注与动物自然栖息地相关的线索和奖励。在这项研究中，我们测试了不同类型的生态相关记忆消退经历对寄生黄蜂 Cotesia glomerata 的条件植物挥发性偏好的影响，该寄生黄蜂利用这些线索来定位其毛毛虫宿主。这些灭绝经历包括仅与寄主痕迹（糠和丝）接触、与非寄主痕迹接触、或在受条件植物物种上在寄主痕迹附近的非寄主中产卵。我们的结果表明，在接触寄主痕迹后，缺乏产卵导致了 C. glomerata 条件植物挥发性偏好的暂时改变，但这种影响是植物物种特异性的。这些结果为生态相关的记忆消退经历如何微调动物的觅食行为提供了新的见解。当无法准确预测当前而非未来的觅食机会时，这种对学习行为的微调可能会很有用。这种对获得的信息的不断重新评估有助于动物防止适应不良的觅食行为。