Locking out predators by silk,a new counterattack behaviour in a social spider mite |
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| Authors: | YUTAKA SAITO YANXUAN ZHANG |
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| Institution: | 1. Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan;2. Research Center of Engineer and Technology of Natural Enemy Resource of Crop Pest in Fujian, Institute of Plant Protection, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou, China |
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| Abstract: | 1. A type of arms race that includes predation, counterattacks and cross‐counterattacks occurs between the phytophagous mite Stigmaeopsis nanjingensis (Ma et Yuan), which lives in self‐woven nests and exhibits cooperative sociality, and its specialised phytoseiid mite predator, Typhlodromus bambusae Ehara. 2. First, the efficiency of the S. nanjingensis (prey) counterattacking T. bambusae (predator) was observed. The prey females frequently locked the immature predators out of their nests using silk web, and the predators subsequently died of starvation. Furthermore, the prey males often killed immature T. bambusae mites after they invaded the nests. 3. This reversal of roles in the predator–prey system was then re‐reversed (returned to a normal state) by the behaviour of T. bambusae females. Immature predators could maintain their predacious natures due to the presence of attending adult females, which are able to cope with the prey counterattack behaviours. |
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| Keywords: | Arms race coevolution Phytoseiidae sociality Stigmaeopsis nanjingensis Tetranychidae Typhlodromus bambusae |
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