Responses of the parasitoid Cotesia rubecula to its host Pieris rapae in a flight tunnel

Responses of female Cotesia rubecula (Marshall) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) to larval Pieris rapae (L.) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) feeding on cabbage leaves were investigated in a flight tunnel. Latency of flight was shorter and the proportion of female wasps flying to leaves was greater when cabbage was infested with hosts. This indicated that wasps detected hosts prior to taking flight and were attracted to them. Wind speed was varied (18, 54, 100 cm/s) to examine its effect on the response of wasps to hosts. Flight was inhibited by increasing wind speed and was accompanied by less frequent but longer bouts of pointing (antennae raised and spread, facing into the wind). The accuracy of landing but not the duration of flight to the plant was affected by increasing wind speed. The results indicated that increasing wind speed will reduce the rate of parasitoid oviposition.

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Résumé Cette étude concerne les réactions des femelles de C. rubecula Marshall (Hyméno., Braconidae) aux chenilles de P. rapae (Lépido, Pieridae) alimentées sur feuilles de choux. Le tunnel fournit un flux laminaire et l'air est recyclé avec désodorisation par circulation sur un filtre de charbon de bois. La période de latence avant l'envol est plus brève et la proportion de femelles volant vers les feuilles plus élevée quand les choux sont contaminés par les chenilles. Ceci montre que les femelles détectent les hôtes avant l'envol et qu'ils les attirent. Le vent peut influer sur la libération de kairomones, sur les caractéristiques du panache d'odeurs et sur l'énergétique du vol; en conséquence, différentes vitesses de vent (18, 54, 100 cm/S) ont été utilisées pour examiner leurs effets sur la réaction des braconides. Le vol a été inhibé par une augmentation de la vitesse du vent et était accompagné par de plus longues, mais moins fréquentes poussées de pointage (antennes dressées et étendues, face au vent). La précision de l'atterrissage a été affectée par l'augmentation de la vitesse du vent, mais non la durée du vol vers la plante. Ces résultats ont montré que l'augmentation de la vitesse du vent peut réduire le taux de ponte du parasitoïde en inhibant le vol. La signification de ces résultats est discutée en relation avec la situation dans la nature.

     

Cheetahs of the deep sea: deep foraging sprints in short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife (Canary Islands)

1. Empirical testing of optimal foraging models for breath-hold divers has been difficult. Here we report data from sound and movement recording DTags placed on 23 short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife to study the foraging strategies used to catch deep-water prey. 2. Day and night foraging dives had a maximum depth and duration of 1018 m and 21 min. Vocal behaviour during dives was consistent with biosonar-based foraging, with long series of echolocation clicks interspersed with buzzes. Similar buzzes have been associated with prey capture attempts in other echolocating species. 3. Foraging dives seemed to adapt to circadian rhythms. Deep dives during the day were deeper, but contained fewer buzzes (median 1), than night-time deep dives (median 5 buzzes). 4. In most deep (540-1019 m) daytime dives with buzzes, a downward directed sprint reaching up to 9 m s(-1) occurred just prior to a buzz and coincided with the deepest point in the dive, suggestive of a chase after escaping prey. 5. A large percentage (10-36%) of the drag-related locomotion cost of these dives (15 min long) is spent in sprinting (19-79 s). This energetic foraging tactic focused on a single or few prey items has not been observed previously in deep-diving mammals but resembles the high-risk/high-gain strategy of some terrestrial hunters such as cheetahs. 6. Deep sprints contrast with the expectation that deep-diving mammals will swim at moderate speeds optimized to reduce oxygen consumption and maximize foraging time at depth. Pilot whales may have developed this tactic to target a deep-water niche formed by large/calorific/fast moving prey such as giant squid.     

The correlation of learning speed and natural foraging success in bumble-bees

Despite the widespread assumption that the learning abilities of animals are adapted to the particular environments in which they operate, the quantitative effects of learning performance on fitness remain virtually unknown. Here, we evaluate the learning performance of bumble-bees (Bombus terrestris) from multiple colonies in an ecologically relevant associative learning task under laboratory conditions, before testing the foraging performance of the same colonies under the field conditions. We demonstrate that variation in learning speed among bumble-bee colonies is directly correlated with the foraging performance, a robust fitness measure, under natural conditions. Colonies vary in learning speed by a factor of nearly five, with the slowest learning colonies collecting 40% less nectar than the fastest learning colonies. Such a steep fitness function is suggestive of strong selection for higher learning speed. Partial correlation analysis reveals that other factors such as forager body size or colour preference appear to be negligible in our study. Although our study does not directly prove causality of learning on foraging success, our approach of correlating natural within-species variation in these two factors represents a major advance over traditional between-species correlative analyses where comparability can be compromised by the fact that species vary along multiple dimensions.     

根茎克隆植物生态学研究进展

根茎在植物的无性繁殖、克隆分株间信息交流和物质交换、预测资源斑块的质量等方面具有重要意义,并且根茎克隆植物的研究涉及生物入侵、全球变化等诸多生态学前沿领域。作为一种重要的克隆植物类型,根茎克隆植物在资源异质性生境中表现出特有的适应方式,这种方式可以通过形态可塑性、觅食行为、生理整合以及适合度来具体表征。着眼于根茎克隆植物,总结和分析了国内外近年来的研究案例,并对形态可塑性起源与多样性的限制假说和适应假说、觅食行为中的强度觅食和广度觅食策略、克隆分株间间隔子保持和断裂的利益权衡等热点内容进行了讨论。最后联系生态学学科前沿,提出了本领域在未来需要重视的研究方向。     

黑龙江哈尔滨地区花背蟾蜍繁殖生态的观察

2004年4月～2005年6月对哈尔滨地区花背蟾蜍的出蛰情况、繁殖期的活动规律、繁殖行为、繁殖力和繁殖期的食性等进行了观察。结果表明,哈尔滨地区花背蟾蜍最早出蜇日期是4月19日,雄性先于雌性、成体先于亚成体出蛰;繁殖活动受温度影响比较明显,繁殖的最适气温为20℃、水温为15℃,雄体之间争雌现象显著;繁殖高峰后逐渐迁入陆地活动,繁殖期的摄食活动明显受繁殖的影响,表现为繁殖期不积极捕食,空胃率占69．39％。     

冬季PM2.5的气象影响因素解析

气象因素能够显著影响PM_(2.5)浓度,可减轻或加剧城市空气污染,尤其是在雾霾严重的冬季。同时由于城市间污染物排放强度和扩散条件的差异,雾霾的发生往往具有较强的区域性。选择了石家庄、西安、北京、太原、广州5个不同污染区域的典型城市,首先分析多个气象因子与PM_(2.5)浓度的关系,进而研究气象因素对PM_(2.5)浓度变异解释度的差异,以及气象因子对PM_(2.5)浓度影响的相对重要性,进一步对比分析气象因素对PM_(2.5)浓度影响在不同污染程度的城市之间的差异,解析了不同城市的主要气象影响因素和气象因素的综合影响程度。研究结果表明:(1)气象条件与PM_(2.5)日浓度显著相关,且在不同污染程度的城市与PM_(2.5)浓度相关的气象因子不同。与石家庄冬季PM_(2.5)浓度相关的气象因素为相对湿度、平均风速;与西安PM_(2.5)浓度相关的主要气象因素为相对湿度、平均风速和最大持续风速;与北京PM_(2.5)浓度相关的主要气象因素相对湿度、日均温度、平均风速、最大持续风速和最低温;与太原PM_(2.5)浓度相关的主要气象因素为日均温、相对湿度、平均风速、最高温、最低温和最大持续风速;与广州PM_(2.5)浓度相关的主要气象因素为相对湿度、平均风速、最高温和降雨量。(2)PM_(2.5)浓度越高的地区,气象因素能够解释的PM_(2.5)浓度变异越小。严重污染区的石家庄气象因素多元回归分析的R~2为0.27,重污染区的西安气象因素多元回归分析R~2为0.29,中污染区的北京气象因素多元回归分析R~2为0.46,污染地区的太原气象因素多元回归分析R~2为0.67。研究结果揭示了不同城市的主要气象影响因素及其综合影响程度,可为城市PM_(2.5)控制和预测精度提高提供理论参考,并为区域生态环境规划和城市协调发展提供科学依据。     

Does a long‐term shift in Wood Stork diet foreshadow adaptability to human‐induced rapid environmental change?

To preserve biodiversity, identifying at‐risk populations and developing conservation plans to mitigate the effects of human‐induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) are essential. Changes in diet, especially for food‐limited species, can aid in detecting populations being impacted by HIREC, and characterizing the quality, abundance, and temporal and spatial consistency of newly consumed food items may provide insight concerning the likelihood of a species persisting in a changing environment. We used Wood Storks (Mycteria americana) nesting in the Florida Everglades as a model system to study the possible effects of HIREC on a food‐limited population. We compared the diets of Wood Storks in 2013 and 2014 with those reported during the 1970s before major anthropogenic activities affected the Everglades system and prey availability. Wood Storks in our study consumed more large‐bodied sunfish species (Lepomis spp.), fewer native marsh fishes, and more non‐native fish species than during the 1970s. Large sunfish and non‐native fish are relatively rare in the drying pools of Everglades marshes where storks traditionally forage, suggesting that Wood Storks may be using novel foraging habitats such as created wetlands (i.e., canals and stormwater ponds). Although created wetlands have long hydroperiods conducive to maintaining large‐bodied fishes and could provide alternative foraging habitat when prey availability is reduced in natural marshes, additional studies are needed to determine the extent to which these wetlands are used by Wood Storks and, importantly, the quality of prey items potentially available to foraging Wood Storks in created wetlands.     

The foraging decisions of a central place foraging seabird in response to fluctuations in local prey conditions

During reproduction, seabirds need to balance the demands of self- and offspring-provisioning within the constraints imposed by central place foraging. To assess behavioral adjustments and tolerances to these constraints, we studied the feeding tactics and reproductive success of common murres (also known as common guillemots) Uria aalge , at their largest and most offshore colony (Funk Island) where parents travel long distances to deliver a single capelin Mallotus villosus to their chicks. We assessed changes in the distance murres traveled from the colony, their proximate foraging locations and prey size choice during two successive years in which capelin exhibited an order of magnitude decrease in density and a shift from aggregated (2004) to dispersed (2005) distributions. When capelin availability was low (2005), parental murres increased their maximum foraging distances by 35% (60 to 81 km) and delivered significantly larger capelin to chicks, as predicted by central place foraging theory. Murres preferred large (>140 mm) relative to small capelin (100–140 mm) in both years, but unexpectedly this preference increased as the relative density of large capelin decreased. We conclude that single prey-loading murres target larger capelin during long foraging trips as parents are 'forced' to select the best prey for their offspring. Low fledgling masses suggest also that increased foraging time when capelin is scarce may come at a cost to the chicks (i.e. fewer meals per day). Murres at this colony may be functioning near physiological limits above which further or sustained adjustments in foraging effort could compromise the life-time reproductive success of this long-lived seabird.     

Can honey bees change foraging patterns?

Abstract. 1. Foraging patterns were studied using honey bees on artificial flower patches to determine if given individuals could change behaviours under differing conditions.
2. Two types of flower patches were used; those simulating a population of flowers, dimorphic for colour, and grids simulating a single colour-dimorphic inflorescence.
3. In the simulated population of flowers bees were individually constant to colour over a range of reward volumes and flower patch sizes.
4. Each bee remained individually constant to a flower morph when visiting a population-type grid but changed to random visitation on the simulated inflorescence.
5. On the simulated inflorescence, with morphs providing unequal qualities of reward, most bees foraged on the higher molarity morph.
6. Most, but not all bees, failed to minimize uncertainty on the simulated inflorescence.
7. On the simulated inflorescence, bees failed to optimize when one morph provided a greater reward volume than did the other.
8. In the population of flowers bees flew from flower to flower, whereas, they walked on the simulated inflorescence.