Due to the ephemeral nature of carcasses they grow on, necrophagous blowfly larvae should minimize the time spent on the cadaver. This could be achieved by moving to high-temperature areas. On that basis, we theorized that larvae placed in a heterogeneous thermal environment would move to the higher temperature that speed up their development. This study was designed to (1) test the ability of necrophagous larvae to orientate in a heterogeneous thermal environment, and (2) compare the temperatures selected by the larvae of three common blowfly species: Lucilia sericata (Meigen), Calliphora vomitoria (L.) and Calliphora vicina (Robineau-Desvoidy). For this purpose, we designed a setup we named Thermograde. It consists of a food-supplied linear thermal gradient that allows larvae to move, feed, and grow in close-to-real conditions, and to choose to stay at a given temperature. For each species and replication, 80 young third instars were placed on the thermal gradient. The location of larvae was observed after 19 h, with fifteen replications per species. The larvae of each species formed aggregations that were always located at the same temperatures, which were highly species-specific: 33.3 AE 1.52°C for L. sericata, 29.6 AE 1.63°C for C. vomitoria, and 22.4 AE 1.55°C for C. vicina. According to the literature, these value allows a fast development of the larvae, but not to reach the maximum development rate. As control experiments clearly demonstrate that larval distribution was not due to differences in food quality, we hypothesized that the local temperature selection by larvae may result from a trade-off between development quality and duration. Indeed, temperature controls not only the development rate of the larvae, but also the quality of their growth and survival rate. Finally, results raise questions regarding the way larvae moved on the gradient and located their preferential temperature.
This review offers the first synthesis of the research on mixed-species groupings of arthropods and highlights the behavioral and evolutionary questions raised by such behavior. Mixed-species groups are commonly found in mammals and birds. Such groups are also observed in a large range of arthropod taxa independent of their level of sociality. Several examples are presented to highlight the mechanisms underlying such groupings, particularly the evidence for phylogenetic proximity between members that promotes cross-species recognition. The advantages offered by such aggregates are described and discussed. These advantages can be attributed to the increase in group size and could be identical to those of nonmixed groupings, but competition-cooperation dynamics might also be involved, and such effects may differ between homo- and heterospecific groups. We discuss three extreme cases of interspecific recognition that are likely involved in mixed-species groups as vectors for cross-species aggregation: tolerance behavior between two social species, one-way mechanism in which one species is attractive to others and two-way mechanism of mutual attraction. As shown in this review, the study of mixed-species groups offers biologists an interesting way to explore the frontiers of cooperation-competition, including the process of sympatric speciation.
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