Nutrition in extreme food specialists: An illustration using termites

Poissonnier, Laure‐Anne; Arganda, Sara; Simpson, Stephen J.; Dussutour, Audrey; Buhl, Jérôme

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13200

Cited by 18 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…food deprivation or access to imbalanced food, result in hyperactivity and increased foraging activity in order to locate new food sources (e.g. Dussutour and Simpson, 2012;Yang et al, 2015;Scharf, 2016;Landayan et al, 2018;Poissonnier et al, 2018). The decrease in time spent outside the nest between the two observation periods is probably explained by poorly fed workers retrieving prey and bringing them back to the nest, which reduced their foraging activity during the second observation period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lipid content influences division of labour in a clonal ant

Bernadou

Hoffacker

Pable

et al. 2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The fat body, a major metabolic hub in insects, is involved in many functions, e.g. energy storage, nutrient sensing and immune response. In social insects, fat appears to play an additional role in division of labour between egg layers and workers, which specialize in nonreproductive tasks inside and outside their nest. For instance, reproductives are more resistant to starvation, and changes in fat content have been associated with the transition from inside to outside work or reproductive activities. However, most studies have been correlative and we still need to unravel the causal interrelationships between fat content and division of both reproductive and nonreproductive labour. Clonal ants, e.g. Platythyrea punctata, are ideal models for studying task partitioning without confounding variation in genotype and morphology. In this study, we examined the range of variation and flexibility of fat content throughout the lifespan of workers, the threshold of corpulence associated with foraging or reproduction and whether low fat content is a cause rather than a consequence of the transition to foraging. We found that lipid stores change with division of labour from corpulent to lean and, in reverted nurses, back to corpulent. In addition, our data show the presence of fat content thresholds that trigger the onset of foraging or egg-laying behaviour. Our study supports the view that mechanisms that regulate reproduction and foraging in solitary insects, in particular the nutritional status of individuals, have been co-opted to regulate division of labour in colonies of social insects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lipid content influences division of labour in a clonal ant

Bernadou

Hoffacker

Pable

et al. 2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…2008; field crickets: Maklakov et al. 2008; ants: Dussutour and Simpson 2009; termites: Poissonnier et al. 2018; honey bees: Altaye et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2011; mice: Solon-Biet et al. 2014) or do not appear to regulate nutrient intake at all (termites: Poissonnier et al. 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Bumblebees adjust protein and lipid collection rules to the presence of brood

Kraus¹,

Gómez‐Moracho²,

Pasquaretta³

et al. 2019

Current Zoology

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Animals have evolved foraging strategies to acquire blends of nutrients that maximize fitness traits. In social insects, nutrient regulation is complicated by the fact that few individuals, the foragers, must address the divergent nutritional needs of all colony members simultaneously, including other workers, the reproductives, and the brood. Here we used 3D nutritional geometry design to examine how bumblebee workers regulate their collection of 3 major macronutrients in the presence and absence of brood. We provided small colonies artificial nectars (liquid diets) and pollens (solid diets) varying in their compositions of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates during 2 weeks. Colonies given a choice between nutritionally complementary diets self-selected foods to reach a target ratio of 71% proteins, 6% carbohydrates, and 23% lipids, irrespective of the presence of brood. When confined to a single nutritionally imbalanced solid diet, colonies without brood regulated lipid collection and over-collected protein relative to this target ratio, whereas colonies with brood regulated both lipid and protein collection. This brood effect on the regulation of nutrient collection by workers suggests that protein levels are critical for larval development. Our results highlight the importance of considering bee nutrition as a multidimensional phenomenon to better assess the effects of environmental impoverishment and malnutrition on population declines.

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“…After drying, the carcasses were weighed again, and body lipid content was calculated as the mass difference before and after extraction. The lean carcasses were then soaked in three 48‐hr baths of 0.35M NaOH (Marden, ; Poissonnier, Arganda, Simpson, Dussutour, & Buhl, ; Rho & Lee, ), which removes the remaining soft tissue, primarily consisting of proteins, and leaves the exoskeleton. This was cleaned in a 48‐hr bath of demineralized water, then dried and weighed, and protein mass was estimated as the difference between lipid‐free carcass mass and exoskeleton mass.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food quality of Ephestia eggs, the aphid Rhopalosiphum padi and mixed diet for Orius majusculus

Toft

Sørensen

Sigsgaard

et al. 2020

J Applied Entomology

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We studied the food quality of the aphid Rhopalosiphum padi to the pirate bug Orius majusculus using Ephestia eggs as high-quality comparison prey. Several performance parameters were tested on individuals that had been reared and maintained on each of the two single-prey diets or on a mixed diet. All fitness parameters were lower in individuals fed aphids only, indicating poor food quality of this prey. Compared with the pure Ephestia egg diet, the mixed diet enhanced teneral mass, while adult survival and female starvation tolerance were negatively affected and all other traits were unaffected. Body protein proportions were constant across diets, whereas lipid proportion was low in the aphid treatment. Preference for aphids was lower following a monotypic aphid diet than when reared on Ephestia eggs or a mixed diet. The results confirm that R. padi is low-quality food for O. majusculus as it is for other generalist predators, even though O. majusculus may contribute significantly to population suppression of the aphid. K E Y W O R D SAnthocoridae, Aphididae, biological control, dietary mixing, life cycle, pest

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Nutrition in extreme food specialists: An illustration using termites

Cited by 18 publications

References 69 publications

Lipid content influences division of labour in a clonal ant

Lipid content influences division of labour in a clonal ant

Bumblebees adjust protein and lipid collection rules to the presence of brood

Food quality of Ephestia eggs, the aphid Rhopalosiphum padi and mixed diet for Orius majusculus

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