Flights of fancy: possible roles of allatostatin and allatotropin in migration and reproductive success of Pseudaletia unipuncta

Many invertebrate neuropeptides have recently been identified and there is evidence that the same compound may serve different roles in different spec ies and/or multiple functions within a given species. However, until the re levant receptors or knock; out' animals, lacking the neuropeptide of intere st, become available it will be difficult to clarify the precise inter- and intraspecific functions of these neuropeptides. In the present paper. we a rgue that until these tools are available a more meaningful understanding o f the roles of neuropeptides could be obtained by carrying out experiments within an ecological context. Furthermore, this approach would allow us to generate hypotheses that could be rigorously tested when more sophisticated techniques are developed. We discuss these ideas using our interdisciplina ry research on the reproductive biology of the true armyworm, Pseudaletia u nipuncta, as a case study. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserv ed.