The “ecology of fear”, i.e., physiological and behavioral alterations displayed by pests in response to predation risk, has recently been proposed as a sustainable alternative to chemicals for pest control. However, the development of such a strategy requires a detailed understanding of the signals and cues underlying the pest-antagonist interaction and eliciting the prey behavioral alteration. Here, we characterized the substrate-borne vibrations produced during the interaction between the green peach aphid Myzus persicae and its antagonists, the parasitoid wasp Aphidius colemani and the ladybug Adalia bipunctata. Thereafter, coupling the electrical penetration graph (EPG) with a stimulus controller, we evaluated whether the playback of the vibrations, alone and in combination with the alarm pheromone, impacted aphid probing behavior and interaction with the host plant. Aphids responded to vibrations exhibiting longer non-probing, shorter intracellular probes, i.e. the behavior through which the insect evaluates host plant quality, delay in accessing the phloem vessels and decrease of the frequency of phloem salivation events. In contrast, on plants treated with the alarm pheromone, insects displayed longer intracellular probes. We hypothesize that the alarm pheromone, signaling a distant threat, might induce a careful evaluation of the host plant in order to decide the magnitude of the reaction. On the other hand, vibrations might indicate a closely approaching threat pushing the aphid to rush the host evaluation process and the whole feeding process. The possible repercussion of the behavioral alterations observed on the dynamics of aphid-borne plant virus transmission is also discussed.

“恐惧生态”，即害虫为应对捕食风险而表现出的生理和行为改变，最近被提议作为害虫防治化学品的可持续替代品。然而，这种策略的制定需要详细了解害虫与拮抗剂相互作用背后的信号和线索，并引起猎物行为的改变。在这里，我们表征了绿桃蚜Myzus persicae与其拮抗剂、寄生蜂Aphidius colemani和瓢虫Adalia bipunctata之间相互作用时产生的基质振动。此后，将电穿透图（EPG）与刺激控制器相结合，我们评估了振动的回放（单独或与警报信息素结合）是否影响蚜虫的探测行为以及与寄主植物的相互作用。蚜虫对振动的反应表现出较长的非探测、较短的细胞内探针，即昆虫评估寄主植物质量的行为、进入韧皮部血管的延迟和韧皮部流涎事件频率的降低。相比之下，在用警报信息素处理的植物上，昆虫表现出更长的细胞内探针。我们假设，发出远处威胁信号的警报信息素可能会引起对寄主植物的仔细评估，以确定反应的强度。另一方面，振动可能表明威胁正在逼近，促使蚜虫加速宿主评估过程和整个取食过程。还讨论了观察到的行为改变对蚜虫传播植物病毒传播动态的可能影响。