Colony Diet Influences Ant Worker Foraging and Attendance of Myrmecophilous Lycaenid Caterpillars
Colony Diet Influences Ant Worker Foraging and Attendance of Myrmecophilous Lycaenid Caterpillars
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蚁群饮食影响蚁工觅食和食蚁兽毛毛虫的出勤
DOI：
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发表时间：
2016
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
N. Pierce
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Pohl;M. Frederickson;M. Elgar;N. Pierce
觅食动物调节它们对碳水化合物和蛋白质等常量营养素的摄入。然而，调节这两种常量营养素的摄入量可能会受到现有食物来源的营养成分的限制。补偿性觅食是在有限的营养物质可利用性下，通过优先利用含有有限营养物质的食物源来调节营养摄入的一种方法。在这里，我们研究了潜在的补偿性觅食的dolichoderine蚂蚁Iridomyrmex mayri，这是常见的协会与毛虫的强制性蚂蚁相关的灰蝶Jalmenus evagoras。毛虫得到保护，免受捕食者和寄生虫，并奖励蚂蚁与营养分泌物从专门的外分泌腺。这些分泌物含有糖和游离氨基酸的混合物，特别是丝氨酸。我们测试了营养缺乏的饮食对觅食模式的影响。mayri通过在食物偏好测试期间记录含有单一类型常量营养素的测试溶液的摄入量。我们还调查了蚂蚁出席五龄J. evagoras毛虫的水平，以评估饮食的变化如何影响蚂蚁照顾毛虫和觅食的分泌物。觅食的蛋白质饮食补偿的营养不足，通过增加摄入量的测试解决方案，其中包含蔗糖，与他们的同行相比，非限制性饮食。然而，在糖饮食的蚂蚁，没有显示出相应的增加消费的测试溶液含有氨基酸丝氨酸。此外，与混合饮食的蚂蚁相比，营养有限饮食的蚂蚁显示出毛虫护理工人的数量增加，这表明毛虫的分泌物适合补偿蚂蚁的营养不足。
Foraging animals regulate their intake of macronutrients such as carbohydrates and proteins. However, regulating the intake of these two macronutrients can be constrained by the nutrient content of available food sources. Compensatory foraging is a method to adjust nutrient intake under restricted nutrient availability by preferentially exploiting food sources that contain limiting nutrients. Here we studied the potential for compensatory foraging in the dolichoderine ant Iridomyrmex mayri, which is commonly found in associations with caterpillars of the obligatorily ant-associated lycaenid butterfly Jalmenus evagoras. The caterpillars receive protection against predators and parasites, and reward the ants with nutritional secretions from specialized exocrine glands. These secretions contain a mixture of sugars and free amino acids, particularly serine. We tested the influence of nutrient-deficient diets on foraging patterns in I. mayri by recording the intake of test solutions containing single types of macronutrients during food preference tests. We also investigated the level of ant attendance on fifth instar J. evagoras caterpillars to evaluate how changes in diet influenced ant tending of caterpillars and foraging on their secretions. Foragers on a protein diet compensated for the nutritional deficit by increasing the intake of test solutions that contained sucrose, compared to their counterparts on a non-restricted diet. Ants on a sugar diet, however, did not show a corresponding increased consumption of test solutions containing the amino acid serine. Additionally, compared with their counterparts on a mixed diet, ants on limited nutrient diets showed an increase in the number of caterpillar-tending workers, suggesting that the caterpillars’ secretions are suitable to compensate for the ants’ nutritional deficit.
影响因子：
4.8
作者：
Ness, J. H.;Morris, W. F.;Bronstein, Judith L.
通讯作者：
Bronstein, Judith L.