Males cannibalise and females disperse in the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis
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Males cannibalise and females disperse in the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis Alexandra M. Revynthi1 · Kaya E. van Pol2 · Arne Janssen2 · Martijn Egas2 Received: 23 June 2020 / Accepted: 18 September 2020 / Published online: 26 September 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Cannibalism is a widespread phenomenon in nature, often occurring when food is scarce, for example among predators that have overexploited a local prey population. Instead of cannibalising, predators can disperse, thereby avoiding being cannibalised or cannibalising related conspecifics, which results in inclusive fitness loss. Theory on prey exploitation in ephemeral predator-prey systems predicts that predators may be selected to display prudent predation by dispersing early, thus saving food for their remaining offspring. This is especially advantageous when average relatedness in the local population is high. Less prudent predators refrain from dispersing until all prey are exterminated. These prey exploitation strategies may also have repercussions for cannibalism, especially when it is driven by food shortage. We therefore investigated to what extent adult females and males cannibalise or disperse after prey have been exterminated locally. We used two lines of the haplodiploid predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis that were selected for early and late dispersal, respectively. In wind tunnels, we observed the cannibalistic and dispersal behaviour of individual adult predators of these lines on a rose leaf with only conspecific larvae as food. Both selection lines behaved similarly, indicating that selection on dispersal behaviour did not result in correlated effects on cannibalism behaviour. Male predators stayed significantly longer on the leaf and engaged more often in cannibalism than females. The results suggest that there might be gender-specific differences in cannibalistic tendency in relation to dispersal. Future theoretical studies on the evolution of cannibalism and dispersal should take differences between the genders into account.
* Alexandra M. Revynthi [email protected] Kaya E. van Pol [email protected] Arne Janssen [email protected] Martijn Egas [email protected] 1
Present Address: Department of Entomology and Nematology, Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Homestead, FL 33031, USA
2
Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94248, Amsterdam 1090 GE, The Netherlands
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Vol.:(0123456789)
186
Experimental and Applied Acarology (2020) 82:185–198
Keywords Acari · Milker · Killer · Dispersal behaviour · Cannibalistic behaviour
Introduction Cannibalism is a common phenomenon in nature and occurs in a wide range of animal taxa, such as birds, mammals, fish, insects, spiders and mites (reviews in Fox 1975; Polis 1981; Schausberger 2003). Animals prey on their conspecifics to obtain food, nutrients and remove competitors in times of scarcity (Fox 1975). Killing and consuming a conspecific, however, may result in injuries, pa
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