Kin recognition in Bufo scaber tadpoles: ontogenetic changes and mechanism

Ontogenetic changes in kin-recognition behavior, effect of social environment on kin-recognition ability, and use of visual and chemical cues in kin recognition have been studied in tadpoles of Bufo scaber after rearing them with kin, in mixed groups, or in isolation from Gosner stage 12 (gastrula). By use of a rectangular choice tank the tadpoles were tested for their ability to choose between (a) familiar siblings and unfamiliar non-siblings, (b) unfamiliar siblings and familiar non-siblings, and (c) unfamiliar siblings and unfamiliar non-siblings. When tested without any stimulus groups in the end compartments of the tank, random distribution was observed for the tadpoles and no bias for the apparatus or the procedure. In the presence of kin and non-kin in the end compartments, significantly more tadpoles spent most of their time near kin (familiar or unfamiliar) rather than near non-kin during early larval stages, up to stage 37. After stage 37 (characterized by the differentiation of toes), test tadpoles showed no preference to associate with kin, suggesting an ontogenetic shift in the kin-recognition ability in B. scaber. In experiments involving selective blockade of visual or chemical cues the test tadpoles preferentially associated near their kin on the basis of chemical rather than visual cues. These findings suggest that familiarity with siblings is not necessary for kin recognition and that kin-recognition ability is not modified after exposure to non-kin by mixed rearing. The findings for B. scaber indicate a self referent phenotype matching mechanism of kin recognition which is predominantly aided by chemical rather than visual cues.     

Nest and colony-specific spectra in the weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina

Animals in social groups need to differentiate between group members and others. In very large groups, such as those formed by many ant species, it is not possible to rely on individually specific cues to identify colonymates. Instead, recognition must be based on the colony-specific cues. Individual ant colonies tend to have a specific chemical gestalt that is maintained by the continual exchange of chemicals between workers. In very large polydomous colonies, the exchange of chemicals may be limited between nests within the colony, resulting in inter-nest variation in colony odour that might hinder identification of colonymates or conspecific intruders. We used near-infrared spectroscopy to explore variation in the chemical profile between and within colonies of the weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina. We found that differences between colonies were reflected in the position, amplitude and width of spectral peaks, while differences between nests within colonies were reflected mainly in amplitude. Furthermore, in the context of colonymate recognition, the behaviour of the ants themselves was positively correlated with colony-specific spectral characteristics, rather than with nest-specific characteristics. Thus, colony spectra have features that are not obscured by intra-colonial variation and may potentially encode the chemical characteristics used by workers to identify colonymates.     

线索有效性对社会性注意和外源性注意的影响

目的 眼睛注视、头朝向和生物运动方向等社会性线索,对人类的生存和社会交互极为重要.由于社会性线索和外周线索都具有反射性注意定向这一特点,社会性注意往往也被认为属于外源性注意.但是,外源性注意并不能完全解释所有的社会性注意现象.因此,两者是否具有相同的加工机制,尚存在争论.方法 本研究使用空间线索范式,系统考察了线索有效...     

摄食信息对球形棕囊藻和布氏双尾藻竞争结果的影响

浮游动物的摄食信息能增大棕囊藻囊体体积,囊体形成被认为是棕囊藻的诱导性防御机制。利用桡足类火腿伪镖水蚤和异养甲藻海洋尖尾藻释放的摄食信息,研究了诱导性防御对球形棕囊藻和布氏双尾藻的竞争的影响。结果表明,球形棕囊藻接收了火腿伪镖水蚤和海洋尖尾藻释放的摄食信息之后形成更大的囊体。防御启动后的球形棕囊藻比未接收摄食信息的球形棕囊藻更快地形成囊体,且囊体维持的时间更长。对照组和火腿伪镖水蚤摄食信息诱导的球形棕囊藻的生物体积比布氏双尾藻更高,且球形棕囊藻在竞争中占优势;而海洋尖尾藻摄食信息诱导的球形棕囊藻生物体积低于布氏双尾藻,且球形棕囊藻相对布氏双尾藻的竞争力下降。微型浮游动物海洋尖尾藻摄食信息导致球形棕囊藻相对硅藻布氏双尾藻的竞争力的下降,有利于解释硅藻先于棕囊藻发生藻华。     

Bulgy tadpoles: inducible defense morph

Predator induced morphological defenses are marked morphological shifts induced directly by cues associated with a predator. Generally, remote cues, i.e., chemical substances emitted from predators or injured conspecifics, are considered to be ideal signals to induce morphological change in aquatic environments rather than close cues, i.e., close chemical or tactile cues, since chemical substances that can propagate over relatively long distances and persist for a long period may allow organisms to keep safe and to deliberately change their morph. In fact, most organisms adopting an inducible morphological defense utilize remote chemical cues to detect predation risk and to produce morphological defenses. In this paper, we report a unique and functionally well designed inducible morphological defense strategy where the induction process requires close cues from a predator. The tadpoles of Rana pirica exhibited a bulgy bodied morphology when threatened with predation by larval salamanders, Hynobius retardatus, in close proximity. Predation trials and a function experiment showed that the induced bulgy morph is an adaptive defense phenotype against the gape-limited predator larval H. retardatus. Furthermore, R. pirica tadpoles use two adaptive strategies in terms of cost saving, i.e., adjustment of the extent of bulginess according to predation risk and reversibility by actual shrink of bulgy body after removing the predation threat. In general, R. pirica hatch earlier than H. retardatus. In natural ponds, during the early developmental stage R. pirica tadpoles live in close proximity to young H. retardatus larvae. As they grow, the salamanders gradually become serious predators and the predator–prey interaction becomes intimate. After a while, predation, cannibalism and metamorphosis decrease the number of salamanders in the ponds, and the predator–prey interaction weakens. Such a phenology in the predator–prey interaction allows the evolution of a close-cue detection system and adaptive cost-saving strategies. Our results highlight that the characteristics of the inducible defense depend on the intensity and specificity of the predator–prey system.     

Lack of field-based recruitment to carbohydrate food in the Korean yellowjacket, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vespula koreensis</Emphasis>

We investigated field-based recruitment via visual, chemical and acoustic cues provided by conspecific wasps on carbohydrate feeders in Vespula koreensis. A wild colony nest was excavated and artificially installed in a field site. Naïve foragers were individually marked and trained to an experimental feeder. We conducted three separate experiments in which foragers were presented with feeder dishes with different cue intensities. For the first, a different number of decoys were posed as if feeding (visual cue). In the second, dishes had been previously visited by different numbers of individuals, thus presenting different concentrations of a possible food site marking substance (chemical cue). In the third, each dish was placed in front of a covered flask with a different number of nestmates inside (acoustic cue combined with body-odor cue). We observed no social facilitation or social inhibition due to any of the experimental cues. Previous studies in Vespula species have shown a variety of foraging strategies ranging from local enhancement to local inhibition. Field-based recruitment mechanisms in yellowjackets may have evolved independently in different lineages.     

Effects of oil droplets by Pieris caterpillars against generalist and specialist carnivores

Pieris rapae larvae secrete small oil droplets from their dorsal setae, which adhere to objects that touch them. The function of the droplets was studied in terms of both generalist and specialist predators. We tested the function of the droplets against ants under laboratory and field conditions. In the laboratory observation, Formica japonica ants that touched the larvae with their antennae initiated antennal cleaning and did not prey on the larvae. In the field, predation pressure by ants on larvae with oil droplets was significantly lower than on larvae from which oil droplets were removed. Thus, we concluded that the droplets had a defensive function. By contrast, oviposition by Cotesia glomerata, the specialist parasitic wasp of P. rapae larvae, was not affected by the presence of oil droplets. Furthermore, the wasps exhibited searching behavior and oviposition behavior towards filter paper which had been impregnated with the droplets substance, suggesting that the oil functions as a host-searching cue and an oviposition stimulant for C. glomerata. According to these results, the functions of the droplets are discussed with regard to the prey–predator interaction.     

Anti-predator behaviour in response to conspecific chemical alarm cues in an esociform fish, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Umbra limi</Emphasis> (Kirtland 1840)

When a predators attack prey, damaged prey tissue releases chemical information that reliably indicates an actively foraging predator. Prey use these semiochemicals to cue anti-predator behaviour and reduce their probability of predation. Here, we test central mudminnows, Umbra limi (Kirtland 1840), for anti-predator behavioural responses to chemical cues in conspecific skin extract. In a field experiment, traps scented with mudminnow skin extract (alarm cue) caught fewer mudminnows than traps scented with water (control). Under controlled laboratory conditions, mudminnows showed a significant reduction in activity and movement to the bottom in response to alarm cues relative to water controls. Reduced activity and increased time on the bottom of the tank are both known components of an anti-predator response. Thus, based on field and lab data, mudminnows exhibited anti-predator behavioural responses to chemical alarm cues released by damaged epidermal tissue. Histological preparations of epidermal tissue did not reveal the presence of specialised “alarm substance” cells for the production of chemical alarm cues. This is the first report of an alarm reaction in an esociform, an order with a long evolutionary history of piscivory.     

The use of visual information by house flies,Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae), foraging in resource patches

Summary House flies, Musca domestica, respond to visual contrasts on the substrate if a resource is associated with the contrasting patterns. Visible resource patch boundaries serve as a signal to flies that they are about to leave a rewarding patch. Searching flies respond to such visual information by walking along the resource patch boundary and turning back into the patch at its edge. This edge detection and response serve as a mechanism for flies with visual cues to stay in a rewarding patch and locate more resources within it. The intensity of their response correlates with the quality of the resource. In the absence of visual cues, patch shape affects foraging success; flies find more resources in circular than in linear resource distributions. The effects of visual cues, however, render patch shape unimportant. Various substrate contrasts are effective as resource information for flies: dark (e.g., green) figures on bright (e.g., white) backgrounds or bright figures on dark backgrounds. Responses to substrate contrasts measured in this study indicate that, over the short term, house flies can learn a visual cue associated with a food source.     

Experimental investigation on weather cues for mast seeding of Fagus crenata

Although a recent study has suggested that the minimum temperature from late April to mid-May in the year preceding flowering causes mast seeding in Fagus crenata, no direct evidence is available to support this finding. The aim of the present investigation was, therefore, to test – in a field experiment – whether the minimum temperature determines mast seeding in F. crenata. We examined the effect of nighttime temperatures on flower-bud initiation in F. crenata by enclosing fruit-bearing branches in heated bags at night, thereby maintaining average nighttime temperatures of approximately 2°C above the ambient temperatures. Heating was applied at night from 21 April to 20 May, 21 May to 19 June, and 21 April to 19 June in 2001. Female inflorescence initiation was inhibited by the nocturnal heating in the period 21 April to 20 May and 21 May to 19 June. However, nocturnal heating from 21 April to 20 May was the more important based on the odds ratio of the former being much lower than that of the latter in a logistic regression model. Male inflorescence initiation was also inhibited by nocturnal heating from 21 April to 20 May. We therefore conclude that flower-bud initiation in F. crenata was controlled by nighttime temperatures between 21 April and 20 May.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Vespula germanica</Emphasis> Foragers Do Not Scent-Mark Carbohydrate Food Sites

We tested whether foragers of Vespula germanica leave a chemical attractant at a carbohydrate food site. Foragers were allowed to make 50 or 100 visits to a feeder filled with a rich, unscented fructose solution. We then gave them a choice between this and an identical but unvisited feeder. There was no difference between the number of individuals that chose the visited feeder and those that chose the unvisited one. Instead, wasps showed a tendency to choose a feeder based on its relative position on the feeding stand. We conclude that foragers of V. germanica do not scent-mark food sites. Instead, in the absence of food odor, they rely on local visual cues to relocate carbohydrate food sources.     

Behavioural response of bullfrog tadpoles to chemical cues of predation risk are affected by cue age and water source

When confronted by signals of predators presence, many aquatic organisms modify their phenotype (e.g., behaviour or morphology) to reduce their risk of predation. A principal means by which organisms assess predation risk is through chemical cues produced by the predators and/or prey during predation events. Such responses to predation risk can directly affect prey fitness and indirectly affect the fitness of species with which the prey interacts. Accurate assessment of the cue will affect the adaptive nature, and hence evolution, of the phenotypic response. It is therefore, important to understand factors affecting the assessment of chemical cues. Here I examined the effect of the age of chemical cues arising from an invertebrate predator, a larval dragonfly (Anax junius), which was fed bullfrog tadpoles, on the behavioural response (activity level and position) of bullfrog tadpoles. The bullfrog response to chemical cues declined as a function of chemical cue age, indicating the degradation of the chemical cue was on the order of 2–4 days. Further, the decay occurred more rapidly when the chemical cue was placed in pond water rather than well water. These results indicate a limitation of the tadpoles to interpret factors that affect the magnitude of the chemical cue and hence accurately assess predation risk. These findings also have implications for experimental design and the adaptation of phenotypic responses to chemical cues of predation risk.     

Pollination by deceit in Paphiopedilum barbigerum (Orchidaceae): a staminode exploits the innate colour preferences of hoverflies (Syrphidae)

Paphiopedilum barbigerum T. Tang et F. T. Wang, a slipper orchid native to southwest China and northern Vietnam, produces deceptive flowers that are self‐compatible but incapable of mechanical self‐pollination (autogamy). The flowers are visited by females of Allograpta javana and Episyrphus balteatus (Syrphidae) that disperse the orchid’s massulate pollen onto the receptive stigmas. Measurements of insect bodies and floral architecture show that the physical dimensions of these two fly species correlate with the relative positions of the receptive stigma and dehiscent anthers of P. barbigerum. These hoverflies land on the slippery centralised wart located on the shiny yellow staminode and then fall backwards through the labellum entrance. They are temporarily trapped in the inflated chamber composed of the interconnected labellum and column. The attractive staminode of P. barbigerum strongly reflects the colour yellow (500–560 nm), a colour preferred innately by most pollen‐eating members of the Syrphidae. No scent molecules were detected using GC mass spectrometry analysis, showing that the primary attractant in this system is visual, not olfactory. Pollination‐by‐deceit in P. barbigerum is contrasted with its congener, P. dianthum, a brood site mimic that is pollinated by ovipositing females of E. balteatus. As the natural rate of fruit set in P. barbigerum (mean 26.3% pooled over three seasons) is lower than that of P. dianthum (mean 58.5% over two seasons), the evolution of false brood sites in some Paphiopedilum spp. should be selectively advantageous as they may provide an increase in the attention and return rates of dependable pollinators to flowers that always lack a reward.     

Releasing latent Toxoplasma gondii cysts from host cells to the extracellular environment induces excystation

Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite, infects a wide variety of mammals and birds. Although T. gondii infects the brain and muscles in its latent cyst form containing bradyzoite stage parasites during chronic infection, when a chronically infected host becomes immunodeficient or is preyed upon by a predator, the latent cyst undergoes excystation. However, it is not yet known how T. gondii recognises the triggers of excystation in the microenvironment surrounding the cyst. In this study, we incubated T. gondii cysts from host cells in several solutions containing a variety of ionic compositions. Excystation occurred in a solution with an ionic composition which mimicked that of the extracellular environment. However, excystation did not occur in a solution that mimicked the intracellular environment. We also found that the specific Na⁺/K⁺ ratio and the presence of Ca²⁺, mimicking the extracellular environment, are required to trigger excystation. To examine whether the stage conversion of bradyzoite to tachyzoite occurs prior to egress, we constructed a gene-modified T. gondii strain expressing a green fluorescent protein specifically in the tachyzoite stage. During the process of cyst reactivation of this strain, green fluorescence was detected prior to excystation. This suggests that stage conversion from bradyzoite to tachyzoite occurs prior to cyst disruption. These results indicate that T. gondii bradyzoites monitor the ionic composition of their surroundings to recognise their expulsion from host cells, to effectively time their excystation and stage conversion.     

What scatter-hoarding animals have taught us about small-scale navigation

Many animals use cues for small-scale navigation, including beacons, landmarks, compasses and geometric properties. Scatter-hoarding animals are a unique system to study small-scale navigation. They have to remember and relocate many individual spatial locations, be fairly accurate in their searching and have to remember these locations for long stretches of time. In this article, we review what is known about cue use in both scatter-hoarding birds and rodents. We discuss the importance of local versus global cues, the encoding of bearings and geometric rules, the use of external compasses such as the Sun and the influence of the shape of experimental enclosures in relocating caches or hidden food. Scatter-hoarding animals are highly flexible in how and what they encode. There also appear to be differences in what scatter-hoarding birds and rodents encode, as well as what scatter-hoarding animals in general encode compared with other animals. Areas for future research with scatter-hoarding animals are discussed in light of what is currently known.     

Predation risk assessment by olfactory and visual cues in a coral reef fish

Assessment of predation risk is vital for the success of an individual. Primary cues for the assessment include visual and olfactory stimuli, but the relative importance of these sources of information for risk assessment has seldom been assessed for marine fishes. This study examined the importance of visual and chemical cues in assessing risk for the star goby, Asterropteryx semipunctatus. Visual and chemical cue intensities were used that were indicative of a high threat situation. The behavioural response elicited by both the visual cues of a predator (the rock cod, Cephalopholis boenak) and the chemical alarm cues from conspecifics were similar in magnitude, with responses including a decrease in feeding strikes and moves. A bobbing behaviour was exhibited when the predator was visible and not when only exposed to the chemical alarm cue. When visual and chemical cues were presented together they yielded a stronger antipredator response than when gobies were exposed solely to conspecific alarm cues. This suggests additivity of risk assessment information at the levels of threat used, however, the goby’s response is also likely to depend on the environmental and social context of the predator–prey encounter. This study highlights the importance of chemical cues in the assessment of predation risk for a coral reef fish.     

Visual and olfactory cues for mate orientation behaviour in male white-spotted longicorn beetle, Anoplophora malasiaca

Olfactory and visual cues were shown to mediate short‐distance orientation in Anoplophora malasiaca (Thomson) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). In a laboratory test, more than 80% (n = 42) of males walked straight upward when presented with an untreated surface with a 75° slope. When a freshly killed female was fixed at a short distance (10 cm ahead and 5 cm to left/right) from the starting point, 50% of males (n = 30) were oriented toward the female before direct contact. Similar behavioural responses were observed when female extract was directly applied to the slope or to a glass rod model fixed on the slope. When black, white, and transparent coloured rods with the extract were presented, the orientation response was significantly greater for black than to white and transparent rods, to which only a negligible response was observed.