Does the Land Snail Arianta arbustorum Prefer Sequentially Mixed Over Pure Diets?

Speiser, Bernhard; Rowell‐Rahier, Martine

doi:10.2307/2390027

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…between protein-and carbohydrate-containing diets, could produce a pattern without a simple correlation between high contents of both nutrients and feeding preference (Simpson and Simpson 1990;Simpson et al 1995). The observation that most snails had at least two different food items in their guts, and had thus switched their diets during the last 24-48 h, however, supports the hypotheses of compensatory feeding behaviour as well as toxin dilution (Speiser and Rowell-Rahier 1993;Hägele and Rowell-Rahier 1999a). Although compensatory feeding might be one of the reasons why the simple measure of plant quality was almost never important in explaining the snails' food choice, it is difficult to imagine how it could have caused the pattern seen in the Adenostyles and Senecio species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…If we accept that there is a functional connection between litter feeding and the quality of the green plant parts eaten at the same time of the year (May), litter feeding might somehow counteract the effects of high concentrations of secondary compounds by providing tannins. However, although tannins might interfere with the action of metal ions and alkaloids (Hagerman and Butler 1991), or with cyanogenic glycosides released through enzymatic action (Goldstein and Spencer 1985), both mechanisms require the harmful compound to be ingested together with the adsorbent, a condition which is not met in the case of the sequentially feeding snails (Speiser and Rowell-Rahier 1993). Therefore, we would expect the high tannin content to bind dietary proteins in the gut, an effect which is certainly counterproductive to food absorption (Hagerman and Butler 1991).…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determinants of seasonal feeding of the generalist snail Arianta arbustorum at six sites dominated by Senecioneae

Hägele

Rahier

2001

Oecologia

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We investigated the diet constituents of Arianta arbustorum by means of faecal analysis and regressed their quantity on the availability and quality of food plants. We studied six sites, all dominated by plants from the Asteraceae tribe Senecioneae, early and later in the growing season, predicting that the snail's food choice would be determined by the presence of the different secondary compounds found in the Senecioneae. The snails consumed less green plant material and more leaf litter in May than in July. Plant water and nitrogen content were higher in May. For the May samples, regressions were only significant at sites that excluded Adenostyles alliariae and Adenostyles alpina; in July, the regression fit was higher at all sites. Of the measured plant parameters, only quantity (availability) was a consistently significant variable in the regressions. Circumstantial evidence suggested that plant secondary compounds had a major influence on snail food choice: fresh-plant consumption increased over the season, as the concentration of many secondary compounds decreased; both plant availability and quality could only explain about half of the observed variation in snail feeding, which argues for other hidden factors influencing snail feeding; the dynamics of feeding of the various senecionean plants were such that A. alliariae and Senecio sp. had a seasonal acceptance whereas Petasites albus was always and A. alpina never accepted, and, finally, the detection of a number of snail-deterrent fractions in A. alpina leaves, a plant which was never found to be consumed in this study.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of seasonal feeding of the generalist snail Arianta arbustorum at six sites dominated by Senecioneae

Hägele

Rahier

2001

Oecologia

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“…Zabel and Tscharntke 1998), whereas the abundance of generalist herbivores, like molluscs, is less responsive to the presence of a single plant species. Furthermore, molluscs have been found to prefer mixed to pure diets (Speiser and Rowell-Rahier 1993) and therefore selectively consume the rarer species of their habitat (Cottam 1985).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altitudinal differences in herbivory on montane Compositae species

Scheidel¹,

Bruelheide²

2001

Oecologia

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To test whether the range of montane Compositae species may be restricted to higher sites because of greater herbivory levels in the lowlands, we transplanted six species, combining them in three species pairs each consisting of a rare montane and a widespread species. Individuals of all species were planted at four sites of different altitude ranging from the lowlands to the subalpine Mt. Brocken in the Harz mountains, Germany. Food choice experiments with three mollusc species indicated that the montane plant was more palatable in the species pair Senecio hercynicus/S. ovatus, but the widespread plant was more palatable in the species pair Petasites albus/Tussilago farfara. In the third pair (Cicerbita alpina/Mycelis muralis), neither species was preferred. In the field, species-specific herbivory levels differed in their amount, in their interaction with plant phenology and in their effect on mortality. They only partially reflected the laboratory food choice results. We found clear differences between the lowest and the highest site for all species, but a continuous decrease in herbivory with altitude was only detected in three of the six species.

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“…This sampling effect (Aarssen 1997;Huston 1997;Tilman 1997), however, cannot apply in the case of generalist herbivores that prefer a mixed diet, available in diverse plant communities but not in plant monocultures. In this case, any advantage of the mixed diet could be related to complementary or additive effects (Tilman 1997;Schmid et al 2002a) between food plants with different resources or metabolites (Pennings et al 1993), including the possible dilution or reduction of toxic effects (Pennings et al 1993;Speiser and Rowell-Rahier 1993). To such herbivores a reduction of plant diversity in their habitat may be detrimental not because of the loss of particular species, but because they will be forced to eat a less diverse diet, if they are not able to disperse to a better habitat richer in plant species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary shift and lowered biomass gain of a generalist herbivore in species-poor experimental plant communities

2003

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Species loss of primary producers is likely to affect processes on other trophic levels. We studied consumption and individual performance of the generalist herbivore Parapleurus alliaceus (Orthoptera) in relation to the species richness of primary producers. Adult grasshoppers were caged and left to feed for 2 weeks on experimental grassland communities ranging in plant species richness from one, two, four, eight to 32 species. Low plant diversity had a negative effect on both plant community biomass and on biomass gain of female grasshoppers, feeding to produce eggs (male grasshoppers did not gain biomass during the feeding period). This was surprising because plots with high plant diversity had a low proportion of grass biomass and grasshoppers preferentially selected grasses, leading to a greater exploitation of grasses in experimental communities of higher diversity. Thus, the concurrent increase in non-grass species in the diet from these high-diversity communities must have been beneficial to the generalist herbivore. In addition to the positive effects of plant diversity, the presence of legumes in a mixture with grasses further enhanced the biomass gain of grasshoppers at a given level of diversity. These findings suggest that plant species loss may lead to shifts in herbivore population sizes, reducing those of generalists and benefiting specialists of the remaining plant species. Our results further suggest that generalist herbivores, by having feeding preferences, can also change the relative abundances of plant species with different functional characteristics. This may feedback on both composition and diversity of plant communities.

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Does the Land Snail Arianta arbustorum Prefer Sequentially Mixed Over Pure Diets?

Cited by 23 publications

References 33 publications

Determinants of seasonal feeding of the generalist snail Arianta arbustorum at six sites dominated by Senecioneae

Determinants of seasonal feeding of the generalist snail Arianta arbustorum at six sites dominated by Senecioneae

Altitudinal differences in herbivory on montane Compositae species

Dietary shift and lowered biomass gain of a generalist herbivore in species-poor experimental plant communities

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