Knowing your habitat: linking patch-encounter rate and patch exploitation in parasitoids

Thiel, Andra; Hoffmeister, Thomas S.

doi:10.1093/beheco/arh030

Cited by 54 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Until now, most of the models that have been used to explore some aspects of spatial learning have assumed that individuals are "omniscient", i.e., that they have complete information on the quality of all patches in the habitat. However, it is unlikely that individuals could always have an a priori information on the surroundings (e.g., Vos et al 1998 and references therein; Stamps and Krishnan 1999): individuals need time to acquire knowledge about the surroundings in which they move and, consequently, adopt some site-specific mechanisms or rules which allow them to exploit habitat patches optimally (Stamps 1995;Thield and Hoffmeister 2004;Dall et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes of movement patterns from early dispersal to settlement

Delgado

Penteriani

Nams

et al. 2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Moving and spatial learning are two intertwined processes: (a) changes in movement behavior determine the learning of the spatial environment, and (b) information plays a crucial role in several animal decision-making processes like movement decisions. A useful way to explore the interactions between movement decisions and learning of the spatial environment is by comparing individual behaviors during the different phases of natal dispersal (when individuals move across more or less unknown habitats) with movements and choices of breeders (who repeatedly move within fixed home ranges), that is, by comparing behaviors between individuals who are still acquiring information vs. individuals with a more complete knowledge of their surroundings. When analyzing movement patterns of eagle owls, Bubo bubo, belonging to three status classes (floaters wandering across unknown environments, floaters already settled in temporary settlement areas, and territory owners with a well-established home range), we found that: (1) wandering individuals move faster than when established in a more stable or fixed settlement area, traveling larger and straighter paths with longer move steps; and (2) when floaters settle in a permanent area, then they show movement behavior similar to territory owners. Thus, movement patterns show a transition from exploratory strategies, when animals have incomplete environmental information, to a more familiar way to exploit their activity areas as they get to know the environment better.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes of movement patterns from early dispersal to settlement

Delgado

Penteriani

Nams

et al. 2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…For example, penetrating multiple tissues and/or different amounts or kinds of chemical or morphological defenses may present different challenges to species that oviposit onto the integument of the pod than to those that oviposit directly on the seed (Janzen 1981;Siemens et al 1992). Eggs oviposited at different stages of dispersal may experience different parasitoid regimes, because those placed on the outside of predispersal pods are likely easier targets for foraging parasitoids than those placed directly on seeds (Thiel and Hoffmeister 2004). This may decrease competition by creating higher population regulation by egg parasitoids, thereby permitting greater species overlap.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ecological and Evolutionary Diversification of the Seed Beetle Genus Stator (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae)

Morse

Farrell

2005

Evolution

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Abstract. Ehrlich and Raven's (1964) hypothesis on coevolution has stimulated numerous phylogenetic studies that focus on the effects of plant defensive chemistry as the main ecological axis of phytophagous insect diversification. However, other ecological features affect host use and diet breadth and they may have very different consequences for insect evolution. In this paper, we present a phylogenetic study based on DNA sequences from mitochondrial and protein-coding genes of species in the seed beetle genus Stator, which collectively show considerable interspecific variation in host affiliation, diet breadth, and the dispersal stage of the seeds that they attack. We used comparative analyses to examine transitions in these three axes of resource use. We argue that these analyses show that diet breadth evolution is dependent upon colonizing novel hosts that are closely or distantly related to the ancestral host, and that oviposition substrate affects the evolution of host-plant affiliation, the evolution of dietary specialization, and the degree to which host plants are shared between species. The results of this study show that diversification is structured by interactions between different selective pressures and along multiple ecological axes.Key words. Coevolution, cytochrome oxidase 1, elongation factor 1-alpha, insect-plant interaction, molecular systematics, specialization. The extraordinary species diversity of phytophagous insects ranks as one of the major features of evolution (Simpson 1953) and there is a growing body of research aimed at describing the patterns of this diversity and explaining the processes that have caused it. Much of the impetus for this field is derived from Ehrlich and Raven's (1964) influential essay on butterfly and plant codiversification, in which they proposed that chemically diverging host-plant species form the main ecological axis along which phytophagous insects diversify. This coevolutionary model is essentially one of adaptive radiation in which a certain insect lineage colonizes a novel resource and then diversifies, both ecologically and evolutionarily, as its daughter lineages specialize onto the codiversifying host plants. Insect diet breadth becomes increasingly restricted as divergence in plant defensive chemistry creates increasing disruptive selection on host use. Ultimately this creates (1) a pattern of correlation, but not necessarily one of cospeciation, between insect and host-plant phylogenies (referred to in this paper as phylogenetic conservatism) accompanied by (2) increasing dietary specialization, the latter resulting in a consistent generalist-to-specialist phylogenetic polarity (phylogenetic trajectory). Because of the influence and explanatory power of this model, most research on the macroevolution of phytophagous insect diversification has focused on testing these specific hypotheses.Consistent empirical evidence for conservatism in host use by insects (e.g., Mitter et al.

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“…As rejection times of real parasitoids are generally relatively short, it will presumably be difficult to explore experimentally whether a certain species considers or neglects parasitized hosts. In addition, some of the assumptions made in the current model may prove to be questionable: it is well conceivable that parasitoids (or foragers in general) are capable of updating their estimate of the average habitat quality on the basis of experience, which should be advantageous when temporal variability or superpatches are considered (Thiel and Hoffmeister 2004;Outreman et al 2005).…”

Section: The Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Foraging parasitoids are known to include information gained before (Roitberg et al 1992;Visser et al 1992;Hoffmeister et al 2000), during (Driessen and Bernstein 1999 and references therein;Pierre et al 2003;van Alphen et al 2003), and between (Thiel and Hoffmeister 2004;Outreman et al 2005) patch visits in their decision-making process. However, we are far from understanding all aspects of this process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The theoretical value of encounters with parasitized hosts for parasitoids

Kolß

Hoffmeister

Hemerik

2006

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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A female parasitoid searching for hosts in a patch experiences a diminishing encounter rate with unparasitized and thus suitable hosts. To use the available time most efficiently, it constantly has to decide whether to stay in the patch and continue to search for hosts or to search for and travel to another patch in the habitat. Several informational cues can be used to optimize the searching success. Theoretically, encounters with unparasitized hosts should lead to a prolonged search in a given patch if hosts are distributed contagiously. The results of empirical studies strongly support this hypothesis. However, it has, to date, not been investigated theoretically whether encounters with already parasitized hosts (which usually entail time costs) provide a parasitoid with valuable information for the optimization of its search in depletable patches, although the empirical studies concerning this question so far have produced ambiguous results. Building on recent advances in Bayesian foraging strategies, we approached this problem by modeling a priori searching strategies (which differ in the amount of information considered) and then testing them in computer simulations. By comparing the strategies, we were able to determine whether and how encounters with already parasitized hosts can yield information that can be used to enhance a parasitoid's searching success.

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Knowing your habitat: linking patch-encounter rate and patch exploitation in parasitoids

Cited by 54 publications

References 39 publications

Changes of movement patterns from early dispersal to settlement

Changes of movement patterns from early dispersal to settlement

Ecological and Evolutionary Diversification of the Seed Beetle Genus Stator (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae)

The theoretical value of encounters with parasitized hosts for parasitoids

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