Influence of Age, Mating Status, Sex, Quantity of Food, and Long-Term Food Deprivation on Red Flour Beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Flight Initiation

Abstract

Effects of age, sex, presence or absence of food, mating status, quantity of food, and food deprivation on rate of and time of flight initiation of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), were determined. Flight initiation declined with increasing age in both presence and absence of food. However, flight initiation was lower when food was present in the flight chambers than in the absence of food. In the presence of food, both mated and virgin beetles were equally likely to disperse by flight. However, in the absence of food, mated beetles initiated flight more readily that virgin individuals. Flight initiation was greatest when little or no food was present. The presence of varying quantities of food inside the flight chambers impacted the number of progeny produced by females before flight, but not the timing of flight. Rate of flight initiation was higher for beetles deprived of food for short periods of time compared with flight initiation of beetles with food in the flight chamber. Flight initiation decreased with increasing time without food. There were no differences in flight tendencies between males and females in the experiments reported here. Our results suggest that T. castaneum uses flight as a mechanism to disperse to new environments during almost any part of their life span and that this type of dispersion does not fit with the model of the so-called true migratory species that involves an "oogenesis-flight syndrome.

Phosphine fumigation and the ecology of the rust red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum: the effects of phosphine resistance genes and sublethal exposure

“…However, the rate of dispersal is relatively low in immature adults, peaks at or after the start of reproduction, and starts to decline gradually with increasing age (Perez-Mendoza et al, 2011a. Besides adult age, some other factors are known to influence the dispersal of these insects, including temperature, humidity and light (Speight et al, 2008), temperature gradients (Jian et al, 2005), quality and quantity of food (Fedina andLewis, 2007, Perez-Mendoza et al, 2011a), and volatiles emitted by grains and their associated fungi .…”

“…The longer the duration of starvation, the lower the rate of flight initiation, but prolonged starvation (about 18 days) resulted in complete inhibition of flight initiation (Perez-Mendoza et al, 2011a;. The investigation of the movement ecology of T. castaneum as a stored grain pest leaves a number of unanswered questions, although it does provide a sound basis for further studies of pests that carry phosphine resistance genes.…”

“…They evidently move readily among widely dispersed resources, because flying beetles can detect volatile stimuli that originate from stored food resources and move towards them . This well-developed ability to move among multiple food patches, even by walking , contributes to their rapid infestation of nearby established resources in the form of stored grains (PerezMendoza, Campbell & Throne 2011a). Further, the aggregation pheromones produced by males that have already colonised a resource increase the attractancy of that particular food resource (Phillips et al 1993).…”

“…The flight bioassays were run with 15 females, of each strain, between 1500h and 1900h, the time at which they fly most readily (Malekpour et al, 2016, Perez-Mendoza et al, 2011a …”

“…Individuals of this species readily move between multiple food patches, by walking and by flight (Perez-Mendoza et al, 2011a;, so they are evidently well adapted to spatially heterogeneous landscapes.…”