Humidity stress and its consequences for male pre‐ and post‐copulatory fitness traits in an insect

Simmons, Leigh W.; Lovegrove, Maxine; Du, Xin; Ren, Yonglin; Thomas, Melissa L.

doi:10.1002/ece3.10244

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…Note that because experiments were conducted at a relative humidity of about 60%, dehydration stress was not severe. Under more desiccating conditions, reproductive output in unfed females would be even lower due to water loss through respiration and evaporation not compensated by drinking (Simmons et al 2023). Fecundity and longevity are also improved with adult feeding in other cerambycine beetles such as Phoracantha semipunctata (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), Phoracantha recurva Newman (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) (Millar et al 2003), and Aromia bungii (Faldermann) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) (Russo et al 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitness consequences of feeding-by-remating interactions in female Cerambyx welensii (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae)

Torres-Vila

2024

Can Entomol

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The longhorn beetle, Cerambyx welensii (Küster) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), is considered a critical factor in oak decline in southwestern Iberia, but populations vary over space and time, depending on several ecological factors. Adults feed on ripe fruits and tree exudates, and evidence suggests that feeding could impact fitness in hot, dry summers, especially under climate change. In the present study, we assessed the impact of adult feeding (sugar-fed, water-fed, or unfed) and remating (monandrous versus polyandrous) on female reproductive output. Lifetime fecundity increased with female size in most feeding–remating combinations. Sugar-fed females achieved the highest longevity and fecundity, unfed females the lowest, and water-fed females had intermediate values. The daily fecundity pattern was strongly dependent on female feeding. Longevity and fecundity of once-mated and remated females were similar in both unfed and water-fed groups; however, in sugar-fed females, remating enhanced fecundity and shortened life span. Preoviposition, oviposition, and postoviposition periods were distinctly affected by both diet and remating. Results show that females require sugar to maximise reproductive output and that a water supply may partially mitigate the fitness decline of unfed females. We conclude that female feeding must be considered to explain C. welensii spatio-temporal occupancy–abundance patterns in oak woodlands.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitness consequences of feeding-by-remating interactions in female Cerambyx welensii (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae)

Torres-Vila

2024

Can Entomol

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“…Such ‘humid heat waves’ have been observed in many parts of the world and are projected to escalate under future climate change scenarios (Gershunov & Guirguis, 2012; Russo et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2021). However, despite its pronounced influence on regulating insect life cycles, evidence for how humidity modifies thermal responses is underdeveloped (Brown et al., 2023), leading to uncertainty about their combined effects on the abundance and distribution of species (Chown et al., 2011; Simmons et al., 2023). Within this context, efforts to forecast the persistence of trophic interactions and their dynamics may be limited (Brown et al., 2023; Rozen‐Rechels et al., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humidity modifies species‐specific and age‐dependent heat stress effects in an insect host‐parasitoid interaction

Li,

Brough,

Rees

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, and may increase humidity levels, leading to coupled thermal and hydric stress. However, how humidity modulates the impacts of heat stress on species and their interactions is currently unknown. Using an insect host‐parasitoid interaction: the Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella, and its endoparasitoid wasp, Venturia canescens, we investigated how humidity interacted with heat stress duration, applied at different host developmental stages, to affect life history traits. Hosts parasitized as 4th instar larvae and unparasitized hosts were maintained in high‐ (60.8% RH) or low‐humidity (32.5% RH) at constant 28°C. They were then exposed to a 38°C thermal stress with a duration of 0 (no heat stress), 6 or 72 h in either the 4th or 5th host instar. Neither humidity nor heat stress duration affected emergence of unparasitized hosts, but increasing heat stress duration during the 4th instar decreased parasitoid emergence irrespective of humidity. When applied during the 5th instar, increasing heat duration decreased parasitoid emergence under low humidity, but no effect of heat stress was found under high humidity. Moreover, experiencing longer heat stress in the 4th instar increased host larval development time and decreased body size under high humidity, but this effect differed under low humidity; increasing heat duration in the 5th instar decreased parasitoid body sizes only under low humidity. Larval stage and heat stress duration directly affected parasitized host survival time, with a concomitant indirect reduction of parasitoid sizes. We show that humidity modifies key life history responses of hosts and parasitoids to heat stress in species‐specific ways, highlighting the potential importance of humidity in regulating host‐parasitoid interactions and their population dynamics. Finally, we emphasize that interactions between environmental stressors need to be considered in climate change research.

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