Behavioral monitoring of Microplitis croceipes, a parasitoid wasp, for detecting target odorants using a computer vision system

Microplitis croceipes (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) are parasitoid wasps capable of being trained to respond to target odors. One such response is known as area-restricted searching, and several wasps exhibiting area-restricted searching within the same area is known as crowding. A computer vision system consisting of a laptop computer, web camera, and software package (Visual Cortex) was assembled to objectively quantify the crowding behavior of M. croceipes. The system was able to measure the crowding behavior of five female M. croceipes hand-trained to detect 3-octanone. Further, the system was able to distinguish between the crowding response of trained M. croceipes exposed to 5.5 and 1.1 mg L^-1 of 3-octanone and a control within 20 s.