Selective sequestration of iridoid glycosides from their host plants in Longitarsus flea beetles.

We investigated in eight species of the flea beetles genus Longitarsus (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) whether the beetles take up iridoid glycosides from their host plants of the Lamiaceae, Plantaginaceae, and Scrophulariaceae. Five of the beetle species, L. australis, L. lewisii, L. melanocephalus, L. nigrofasciatus, and L. tabidus, could be shown to sequester iridoid glycosides in concentrations between 0.40 and 1.55% of their dry weight. Eight different iridoid glycosides, acetylharpagide, ajugol, aucubin, catalpol, 8-epi-loganic acid, gardoside, geniposidic acid, and harpagide could be identified in the host plants, yet only aucubin and catalpol are sequestered by the beetles. No iridoid glycosides could be detected in the beetles if neither aucubin nor catalpol were present in the host plant, as in L. minusculus on Stachys recta (acetylharpagide only) and in L. salviae on Salvia pratensis (no iridoid glycosides). In one beetle species, L. luridus, we could not detect any iridoid glycosides although its field host, Plantago lanceolata, had considerable amounts of aucubin and catalpol plus two further iridoids. The five sequestering Longitarsus species differ in their capacity to store the compounds and in their affinity for catalpol relative to aucubin.