Maternal Care in the Burrower Bug <Emphasis Type="Italic">Adomerus triguttulus</Emphasis>: Defensive Behavior |
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Authors: | Taichi Nakahira Shin-ichi Kudo |
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Institution: | (1) Systematic Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan;(2) Department of Biology, Naruto University of Education, Naruto Tokushima, 772-8502, Japan |
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Abstract: | Some burrower bugs (Heteroptera: Cydnidae) show complex patterns of maternal care, including defense against predators and
the provisioning of food to nymphs. Recently, the subsocial cydnid bugs have attracted the interest of researchers as model
systems to study the behavioral ecology of parental investment. However, there have been few attempts to quantify the fitness
benefits of maternal behavior other than provisioning. Here, we examined the maternal behavior of Adomerus triguttulus and its adaptive significance in terms of offspring survival in the field. A. triguttulus young depend on fallen nutlets of myrmecophorous mints, Lamium spp. Under field conditions, females attend offspring, from eggs to second instar nymphs, in nests on the ground under the
litter. When disturbed, the females showed aggressive responses against the source of disturbance. The females often carried
spherical clutches of eggs away from the nest when heavily disturbed. Female-removal experiments in the field demonstrated
a defensive function of the female behavior; predators, such as ants, attacked egg clutches without females and the clutches
often disappeared during the experiment. Egg clutches without females sometimes also suffered from fungal infection. Selective
factors on maternal defensive behavior in A. triguttulus are discussed in terms of habitat properties possibly emerging from insect–plant associations. |
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Keywords: | Maternal care defense burrower bug Adomerus triguttulus |
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