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Plants
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Plant–Insect Interactions—3rd Edition
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Plant–Insect Interactions—3rd Edition

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Protection and Biotic Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 422

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Francisco Rubén Badenes-Pérez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Consejor Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: plant–insect interactions; agroecology; biological control conservation; pollinator conservation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The topic of plant–insect interactions includes a broad range of important relationships between plants and insects, such as crop protection, insect pollination, and plant provision of food and shelter to insects. The chemistry and structure of plants provide defense mechanisms against insect herbivores, also attracting parasitoids and predators of insect herbivores. Plant secondary metabolites are also used by specialist insects to locate their host–plants. Entomophilous flowers attract pollinators searching for nectar and pollen, which are also a food source for many other insects. Plants also provide shelter for insects that feed on other plants or on other organisms. Plant–insect interactions are also influenced by the surrounding environment, which affects both plants and insects. The interaction between plants and insects is continuously shaped through coevolution. This Special Issue welcomes articles focusing on any aspect related to plant–insect interactions.

Dr. Francisco Rubén Badenes-Pérez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • entomophily
  • herbivory
  • host–plant resistance
  • host–plant selection
  • insect pollination
  • plant chemistry
  • plant–insect interactions
  • plant protection
  • pollination
  • biological control

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2195 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Leaf Traits on the Excitation, Transmission, and Perception of Vibrational Mating Signals in the Tea Leafhopper Empoasca onukii Matsuda (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)
by Yao Shan, Qiuyi Yao, Qisheng Jia, Jiping Lu, Xiaoming Cai, Zongmao Chen and Lei Bian
Plants 2025, 14(7), 1147; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14071147 - 7 Apr 2025
Viewed by 300
Abstract
The physical properties of plants affect the transmission of plant-borne vibrational signals, which many herbivorous insects use for communication. Male calling signals (MCaSs, with sections S0, S1, and S2) and courtship signals (MCoSs, with sections S1 and S2) of Empoasca onukii Matsuda (Hemiptera: [...] Read more.
The physical properties of plants affect the transmission of plant-borne vibrational signals, which many herbivorous insects use for communication. Male calling signals (MCaSs, with sections S0, S1, and S2) and courtship signals (MCoSs, with sections S1 and S2) of Empoasca onukii Matsuda (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), a major pest of tea plant, have a multicomponent structure. The same MCaS was repeatedly played back on different leaves of a tea branch, and parameters of the transmitted signal and female responses were measured on the leaf inhabited by females. We also measured the signal parameters and behaviors of E. onukii on single leaves of different ages. The intensity of MCaSs from other leaves attenuated after they propagated to leaves on which females were located, which decreased the duration of MCaS-S2. Higher leaf thickness, leaf hardness, and leaf area were associated with an increased pulse repetition time (PRT) of MCaSs, number of pulses in MCaS-S2, and duration of MCaS-S2, respectively. MCoS-S1 had a higher dominant frequency (Df) in leaves with a long main vein and high hardness, and the PRT of MCoS-S2 was longer on thicker leaves. In the initial stage of courtship, the signal excitation of males was affected by leaf traits, especially the temporal parameters of MCaS-S2, which was the most significantly affected section after host transmission; it also had an important effect on the response delay of females. In the location stage, the signal excitation of males was not only affected by leaf traits but also interacted with the signal excitation of females. These results facilitate exploration of the interaction between leafhoppers and host plants during courtship communication and have implications for the breeding of E. onukii-resistant varieties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant–Insect Interactions—3rd Edition)
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