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Lima Bean Plant Behavior: Recruitment of Carnivores to Reduce Herbivory
The lima bean, Phaseolus lunatus, is an herbaceous plant that is a part of the legume family. Initially from South and Central America, the lima bean has adapted to live in many different climates around the world. One of these adaptations includes a particularly effective induced herbivory defense. The Lima Bean is able to signal to the carnivorous natural enemy of herbivores, the carnivorous mite, mediated by HIPVs (Herbivore Induced Plant Volatiles) in an attempt to save itself from further predation.

The lima bean plant does this as an induced defense when being eaten by herbivorous predators. It is the mechanical wounding and chemical elicitors from insect oral secretions that first begin the signaling pathway to induce HIPV production. Once this pathway is induced, the plant produces HIPVs which are released in to the air and can be received by any organisms that have receptors capable of receiving HIPVs, which includes: carnivores, conspecific and heterospecific herbivores, as well as neighboring plants. It is this signaling of the carnivorous natural enemy of herbivores that is of particular interest, as they become attracted to the plant and will then come and prey upon the plant’s herbivorous enemy, thereby reducing herbivory of the plant.

One particular experiment in which this was made apparent was in the understanding of the tritrophic system between the lima bean plant, two-spotted spider mite, and the carnivorous mite. Here experimenters noticed an increase in HIPVs when the lima bean plant was preyed on by the two-spotted spider mite. Then, when the carnivorous mite was introduced, it had increased prey searching efficacy and overall attraction to the lima bean plant, even once the two-spotted spider mite was removed, but the HIPVs remained high.

The lima bean plant may appear to be just an ordinary bean plant, but it has an expertise in predator avoidance that is unmatched. By attracting the predator of the lima bean’s predator, the plant is reducing overall herbivory and survives another day.