Botanists and zoologists have recognized for centuries the specificity of various insects for plants, and entomolo gists have long been aware that insects defend themselves from predators by emitting repulsive odors. Only recently have chemists and biologists established a joint endeavor for studying the chemical relationships between plants and insects. The present symposium volume of the Phytochemical Society of North America's RECENT ADVANCES IN PHYTOCHEMISTRY consists of eight papers dealing with phytochemical relation ships between plants and their insect herbivores. The fifteenth P.S.N.A. annual symposium and meeting was held in August, 1975, on the campus of The University of South Florida, Tampa. The chemical defenses of apparent and unapparent plants were contrasted by Feeny. Rodreguiz and Levin illustrated parallel defense mechanisms of plants and insects and then Hendry, Kostelc, Hindenlang, Wichmann, Fix and Koreniowski discussed chemical messengers for both plants and insects. Subsequently Beck and Reese reviewed plant contributions to insect nutrition and metabolism. Indepth studies for the monarch butterfly-milkweed interaction were presented by Roeske, Seiber, Brower, and Moffitt and for the cotton boll weevil-cotton plant relationship by Hedin, Thompson, and Gueldner. In the latter portion of the symposium Rhoades and Cates presented a general theory concerning the coevolu tion of insects and plant antiherbivore chemistry.

Plant apparency and chemical defense. Insect - plant interactios: nutrition and metabolism. Milkweed cardenolides and their comparative processing by monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus L.). A general theory of plant antiherbivore chemistry. Biochemical parallelisms of repellants and attractants in higher plants and arthropods. Cotton plant and insect constituents that control boll weevil behavior and development. Chemical messengers in insects and plants. Secondary plant substances as materials for chemical high quality breeding in higher plants.

Plant apparency and chemical defense. Insect - plant interactios: nutrition and metabolism. Milkweed cardenolides and their comparative processing by monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus L.). A general theory of plant antiherbivore chemistry. Biochemical parallelisms of repellants and attractants in higher plants and arthropods. Cotton plant and insect constituents that control boll weevil behavior and development. Chemical messengers in insects and plants. Secondary plant substances as materials for chemical high quality breeding in higher plants.

Chemical warfare between plants and their herbivores and pathogens was first brought to our attention by the publication 25 years ago of the paper by Fraenkel in Science. There, he pointed out that most plants have similar nutritional characteristics so that the selection of plants by insect herbivores must depend on the relative toxicity of secondary compounds. This led, rather gradually, to a host of papers on plant-herbivore interactions. More or less at the same time, insect physiologists and ecologists were starting to realise the importance of chemical communi cation systems in determining sexual and other characteristics of insect behaviour. Nine years ago the Phytochemical Society of North America published their Symposium on 'Biochemical Interaction Between Plants and Insects' in which the plant apparency theory was expounded by both Paul Feeny and Rex Cates and David Rhoades. This stated that plants which are apparent usually contain secondary components which reduce digestibility (tannins and lignins) while ephemeral plants have more toxic, and perhaps less costly, compounds such as alkaloids. These papers stimulated much research on biochemical ecology. The recognition of the importance of the biochemical factors in such interactions is not just of scientific interest. It is vitally important in programs for the production of new varieties of cultivated plants, especially in tropical countries where about one-third or more of the crops are lost to predation or disease.

Plant apparency and chemical defense. Insect - plant interactios: nutrition and metabolism. Milkweed cardenolides and their comparative processing by monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus L.). A general theory of plant antiherbivore chemistry. Biochemical parallelisms of repellants and attractants in higher plants and arthropods. Cotton plant and insect constituents that control boll weevil behavior and development. Chemical messengers in insects and plants. Secondary plant substances as materials for chemical high quality breeding in higher plants.

Biochemical interaction between plants and insects discusses about biochemical interaction between plants and insects in a simple yet detailed manner. This book comprises topics such as beneficial insect to plants, the importance of insects in plants pollination process, harmful insect pests of the plants and insect pests that attack specific food crop plants. This book basically explains how plants and insects intervene in a detailed way. Different common beneficial insects are also discussed. Insect and pests that attack specific cash crops, biological association between root-knot nematode species and tubers, process of insects locating their host plants, plant species and their essential oils on some storage insect and pests, impacts of climate change on biological and ecological interaction between insects and plants are some of the topics which are also discussed in this book.