Reproductive investment in response to non-lethal predation in subsocial burrower bugs

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25440239
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Naruto University of Education
• Principal Investigator: KUDO Shin-ichi 鳴門教育大学, 大学院学校教育研究科, 准教授 (90284330)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NOMAKUCHI Shintaro 佐賀大学, 農学部, 教授 (80253590) ; HIRONAKA Mantaro 浜松医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (70456565)
• Research Collaborator: MUKAI Hiromi
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 親による子の保護 / 栄養卵 / 母性効果 / 適応的可塑性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In some burrower bugs, females exhibit complicated parental care, including the provision of infertile trophic eggs and fruit of host plants. Gravid females sometimes suffered injuries, which had probably been attacked by predators. Such non-lethal predation may decrease their ability of fruit provisioning or residual reproductive value and thus may induce adaptive changes in trophic-egg production. To test the hypotheses, the compensation of decreased provisioning ability and the terminal investment, females were divided into three experimental groups: hind-leg removal, forewing removal and control groups. Females in the hind-leg removal group produced more trophic eggs per hatchling than those in the other two groups. The females also showed lower provisioning ability. These results strongly suggest that females that have lost legs compensate for decreased provisioning ability through increasing trophic-egg production.

Free Research Field

行動生態学