Defensive structures influence fighting outcomes
Defensive structures influence fighting outcomes
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DOI：
10.1111/1365-2435.13730
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发表时间：
2020-12-16
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Wiens, John J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Emberts, Zachary;Wiens, John J.
在许多动物物种中，个体为了获得有限的资源（例如配偶、食物或住所）而与同种动物发生争斗。大多数关于这种种内争斗的理论都认为，损害在决定比赛赢家方面起着重要作用。因此，在种内竞争中，减少个体所受伤害的防御结构应该是一种战斗优势，例如山羊的皮盾、鳄鱼的背骨皮和螳螂虾的盔甲尾。尽管许多研究已经确定了这些防御结构，但还没有研究调查它们是否会影响种内争斗的结果。在这里，我们调查了通过增强个体的盔甲来抑制伤害是否会影响巨型牧豆树蝽（Thumberneocalifornicus）的战斗行为和成功（昆虫纲：半翅目：我们发现实验操纵的个体（即那些提供额外的装甲）是1.6倍，更有可能赢得一场战斗相比，控制。这些结果表明，损伤和减少损伤的结构，可以影响战斗的成功。首先，我们的研究结果实验支持大多数理论战斗模型的一个基本假设：即损害是一个战斗成本，可以影响比赛结果。第二，这些结果强调了个人防御能力的重要性，以及为什么不应该进行防御。在本文的支持信息中可以找到免费的简明语言摘要。
In many animal species, individuals engage in fights with conspecifics over access to limited resources (e.g. mates, food, or shelter). Most theory about these intraspecific fights assumes that damage has an important role in determining the contest winner. Thus, defensive structures that reduce the amount of damage an individual accrues during intraspecific competition should provide a fighting advantage.Examples of such damage-reducing structures include the dermal shields of goats, the dorsal osteoderms of crocodiles, and the armoured telsons of mantis shrimps. Although numerous studies have identified these defensive structures, no study has investigated whether they influence the outcomes of intraspecific fights.Here we investigated whether inhibiting damage by enhancing an individual's armour influenced fighting behaviour and success in the giant mesquite bug, Thasus neocalifornicus (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coreidae).We found that experimentally manipulated individuals (i.e. those provided with additional armour) were 1.6 times more likely to win a fight when compared to the control. These results demonstrate that damage, and damage-reducing structures, can influence fighting success.The implications of these results are twofold. First, our results experimentally support a fundamental assumption of most theoretical fighting models: that damage is a fighting cost that can influence contest outcomes. Second, these results highlight the importance of an individual's defensive capacity, and why defence should not be ignored.A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.