A prey animal may have the alternative of flying away or feigning death when it encounters predators. These alternatives have a genetic base as anti-predator strategies in the adzuki bean beetle, Callosobruchus chinensis . A negative genetic correlation between death-feigning intensity and flying ability was found in C. chinensis , i.e. lower flying ability is genetically connected to escaping by dropping from a perch and then feigning death, whereas higher flying ability does not correspond to death-feigning behaviour. Two bidirectional artificial selections for death-feigning duration and flying ability were conducted independently in C. chinensis . The strains selected for shorter (longer) duration of death-feigning had higher (lower) flying ability, while the strains selected for lower (higher) flying ability showed longer (shorter) duration of death-feigning. When the two traits were compared in 21 populations of C. chinensis derived from different geographical regions, a significant negative correlation was found between death-feigning intensity and flying ability. Based on these results, the choice between alternative escaping behaviours in animals is discussed from two points of view: phenotypic plasticity, an individual with two tactics; and pleiotropic genetic correlation, different individuals with opposite strategies.
Insects sometimes invade different habitats in new territory compared to their original habitat. In the present study, the seasonal abundance of an exotic leaf beetle, Ophraella communa LeSage (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), which invaded Japan from North America in 1996, was investigated from April to October 2003 on two host plants, the common ragweed Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., and the giant ragweed A. trifida L., in Okayama City, Japan. Two peaks of population abundance were found on both plants within the year. Many O. communa were found on A. trifida growing on a hill area (land), whereas no insects were found on A. trifida growing on the bank of a riverbed (river), where the plants occasionally suffered water inundation. More pupae were found on the underside of plant leaves than on the surface of leaves, stems, and flowers; however, the pupation sites of the plants differed in September. No parasitoid or fungus was found in the laboratory and field, but predators were observed in the field in 2003, the fifth year after O. communa invaded Okayama. The results showed that the beetles fed on A. artemisiifolia as well as A. trifida in Japan, which is not reported as a host plant at their origin.
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