Survival of Eggs in the Gypsy Moth Lymantria dispar. II. Oviposition Site Selection in Changing Environments

Higashiura, Yasutomo

doi:10.2307/4839

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Higashiura (1989) demonstrated that gypsy moths living in snowy regions often oviposited in locations where eggs would be insulated by snow cover, even though larvae risked predation while travelling up tree trunks after hatching. Michiels and Dhondt (1990) observed that ovipositing dragonflies chose sites exposed to the north or south depending on temperature, thereby behaviorally regulating the thermal environment of their eggs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Because most insects do not care for their offspring, females can increase their fitness by ovipositing in habitats that maximize larval growth and minimize egg and larval mortality (Dethier 1959;Rausher 1979;Werner 1986;Higashiura 1989;Petranka and Fakhoury 1991). Thus, specialized oviposition behavior and site selection should be favored when larval or egg survival is higher at certain sites or times (Mangel 1987;Resetarits 1996;Blaustein 1999), and especially when the larvae are relatively sedentary or incapable of migrating away from unsuitable habitats (Bryant 1969).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Hydrologic and behavioral constraints on oviposition of stream insects: implications for adult dispersal

2000

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The supply of recruits plays an important role in plant and animal population dynamics, and may be governed by environmental and behavioral constraints on animals. Mated females of the mayfly genus Baetis alight on rocks protruding from streams, crawl under water and deposit a single egg mass under a rock. We surveyed oviposition and emergence of a bivoltine population of B. bicaudatus in multiple stream reaches in one high-altitude watershed in western Colorado over 3 years to establish qualitative patterns at a regional scale (entire watershed), and quantitative patterns over six generations at a local scale (one stream reach). We also measured characteristics of preferred oviposition substrates, performed experiments to test hypotheses about cues used by females to select oviposition sites, and measured mortality of egg masses in the field. Our goals were to determine whether: (1) hydrologic variation necessitated dispersal of females to find suitable oviposition sites; (2) the local supply of females could provide the supply of local recruits; and (3) local recruitment determined the local production of adults. The onset of oviposition corresponded with the decline of spring run-off, which differed dramatically among years and among sites within years. However, eggs appeared before any adults had emerged in 8 of 22 site-years, and adults emerged 2-3 weeks before any eggs were oviposited in 3 site-years. Furthermore, the size distribution of egg masses differed from that predicted by the size distribution of females that emerged from seven of nine stream reaches. Protruding rocks and eggs appeared earlier each summer in smaller tributaries than in larger mainstream reaches, suggesting that hydrologic and behavioral constraints on oviposition may force females to disperse away from their natal reach to oviposit, and possibly explain the predominantly upstream flight of Baetis females reported in other studies. Local oviposition rates in one third-order stream-reach increased rapidly as soon as substrates protruded from the water surface, and females preferred large rocks that became available early in the flight season. However, females oviposited on <10% of all available rocks, and <65% of preferred rocks as determined by an empirical model. These data indicated that the timing of appearance of suitable oviposition sites determined the phenology of local recruitment, but that preferred oviposition sites were not saturated. Thus, the magnitude of local recruitment was not limited by the absolute abundance of preferred oviposition sites. Only 22% of egg masses observed in the field suffered mortality during their embryonic development, and per capita Baetis egg mass mortality was significantly lower on rocks with higher densities of egg masses. Thus, we suspect that specialized oviposition behavior may reduce the probability of egg mortality, potentially compensating for the costs of dispersal necessary to locate suitable oviposition sites. Finally, the number of adults that emerged at one stream reach was indep...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Hydrologic and behavioral constraints on oviposition of stream insects: implications for adult dispersal

2000

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“…Factors affecting choice of oviposition sites by female insects may include habitat characteristics like temperature, shape, orientation and size of the substrate (Higashiura 1989;Canyon et al 1999;Reich and Downes 2003a, b). Some insects oviposit in places protected from snow cover (Higashiura 1989), and others avoid habitats with a high probability of desiccation (Juliano et al 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some insects oviposit in places protected from snow cover (Higashiura 1989), and others avoid habitats with a high probability of desiccation (Juliano et al 2002). Oviposition in egg aggregations has also been reported as a way of minimizing egg mortality from predation (Faraji et al 2002;Damman and Cappucino 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective oviposition of the mayfly Baetis bicaudatus

Encalada

Peckarsky

2006

Oecologia

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Selective oviposition can have important consequences for recruitment limitation and population dynamics of organisms with complex life cycles. Temporal and spatial variation in oviposition may be driven by environmental or behavioral constraints. The goals of this study were to: (1) develop an empirical model of the substrate characteristics that best explain observed patterns of oviposition by Baetis bicaudatus (Ephemeroptera), whose females lay eggs under rocks protruding from high-elevation streams in western Colorado; and (2) test experimentally selective oviposition of mayfly females. We surveyed the number and physical characteristics of potential oviposition sites, and counted the number and density of egg masses in different streams of one watershed throughout two consecutive flight seasons. Results of surveys showed that variability in the proportion of protruding rocks with egg masses and the density of egg masses per rock were explained primarily by seasonal and annual variation in hydrology, and variation in geomorphology among streams. Moreover, surveys and experiments showed that females preferred to oviposit under relatively large rocks located in places with high splash associated with fast current, which may provide visual, mechanical or both cues to females. Experiments also showed that high densities of egg masses under certain rocks were caused by rock characteristics rather than behavioral aggregation of ovipositing females. While aggregations of egg masses provided no survival advantage, rocks selected by females had lower probabilities of desiccating during egg incubation. Our data suggest that even when protruding rocks are abundant, not all rocks are used as oviposition sites by females, due to female selectivity and to differences in rock availability within seasons, years, or streams depending on variation in climate and hydrogeomorphology. Therefore, specialized oviposition behavior combined with variation in availability of quality oviposition substrata has the potential to limit recruitment of this species.

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“…Two behavioral components lead to larval aggregation. The first is the choice of where to place the eggs within the landscape (Heisswolf et al 2006) or plant (Whitham 1978, Silva andFurlong 2012), and can be modulated by predators/parasitoids (Higashiura 1989), the availability and quality of host plants (Obermaier and Zwo¨lfer 1999), and vegetation structure (Meiners and Obermaier 2004). Information about conspecific egg presence might also influence the oviposition choice, but this phenomenon has not been sufficiently investigated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How far away is the next basket of eggs? Spatial memory and perceived cues shape aggregation patterns in a leaf beetle

Stephan

Stenberg

Björkman

2015

Ecology

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Abstract. Gregarious organisms need to handle the trade-off between increasing food competition and the positive effects of group living, and this is particularly important for ovipositing females. We hypothesized that insect females consider how many conspecifics previously visited a host plant. In a no-choice assay, we show that the gregarious blue willow leaf beetle (Phratora vulgatissima) laid the most eggs and the largest clutches on plants where a sequence of few individual females was released, compared to plants where one or many different females were repeatedly released. Therefore, this species is more sensitive to the indirectly perceived number of conspecifics than the directly perceived number of eggs on a plant. We further hypothesized that females adjust their own intra-plant egg clutch distribution to that of conspecifics and discovered a new behavioral component, i.e., the modulation of distances between clutches. Females adjusted these distances in ways indicating the use of spatial memory, because the largest distance increases were observed on plants with their own clutches, compared to plants with clutches from conspecifics. However, adjustment of aggregation level and distance between clutches occurred only on a suitable, and not on an unsuitable, Salix genotype. We conclude that both behaviors should reduce competition between sibling and non-sibling larvae.

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Survival of Eggs in the Gypsy Moth Lymantria dispar. II. Oviposition Site Selection in Changing Environments

Cited by 29 publications

References 20 publications

Hydrologic and behavioral constraints on oviposition of stream insects: implications for adult dispersal

Hydrologic and behavioral constraints on oviposition of stream insects: implications for adult dispersal

Selective oviposition of the mayfly Baetis bicaudatus

How far away is the next basket of eggs? Spatial memory and perceived cues shape aggregation patterns in a leaf beetle

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