Behavioral Ecology of Odonates

瓦奇博士的研究有三个相关目标。尽管这项工作集中在一种昆虫上，但它与栖息地和雌性行为如何相互作用以及它们如何反过来影响雄性行为这一问题具有更广泛的相关性，并有助于在野外条件下对假设进行实验测试的一般方法。瓦奇博士的第一个目标是继续开发方法来测试关于野外条件下行为原因的假说。这一点很重要，因为许多物种不能人工饲养，而且在简化的实验室条件下进行的实验往往不能揭示自然界发生的事情。瓦奇博士之所以选择豆娘蝇作为研究动物，源于他对豆娘蝇生物学的熟悉程度，以及他操控个体及其栖息地的能力。例如，他的研究将涉及创建、移除和改变产卵(产卵)地点，以测试这些地点的哪些特征或它们的位置对选择这些地点是重要的。瓦奇博士的第二个目标是，确定是什么影响了斑纹斑纹飞虱雌性和雄性对产卵地点的选择。产卵地点(溪流中的植被)是两性个体的关键资源。雌性将它们作为产卵的地方，而雄性则保护它们，并将它们用作与雌性相遇的地方。Waage博士将研究产卵地点和周围植被的哪些特征使它们对雄性和雌性具有吸引力。他还将调查为什么男性和女性使用这些网站的时间和空间差异如此之大。回答这个简单的问题--是什么决定了斑潜蝇的产卵地点选择--实际上可能有助于解释许多雄性和雌性的行为以及两性之间的相互作用。虽然这项工作是针对一个物种，但这些发现将有助于了解昆虫如何寻找和开发资源的总体信息。这个项目的第三个目标是测试目前行为生态学文献中的一些普遍观点。与大多数迅速发展的学科一样，行为生态学的理论远远领先于它的测试。瓦奇博士将专注于这样一个观点，即雌性行为(例如，它们在哪里产卵)可能是或决定大部分雄性行为的基础(例如，雄性选择寻找雌性的地方，或者雄性之间竞争进入这样的地方)。长期以来，行为生态学一直偏向于从男性的角度来解释事情。这些蜻蜓似乎是探索男性和女性行为如何相关的理想动物。与Waage博士之前的工作一起，这个项目应该使他能够展示雌性产卵行为如何影响雄性行为，以及雄性和雌性的互动如何影响重要资源的定位和使用过程。

Dr. Waage's research has three related goals. Although the work focuses on one species of insect, it has wider relevance to the question of how habitat and female behavior interact and how they in turn influence male behavior, and it contributes to the general methodology for experimental testing of hypotheses under field conditions. Dr. Waage's first goal is to continue to develop methods for testing hypotheses about the causes of behavior under field conditions. This is important because many species cannot be raised in captivity and because experiments done under simplified laboratory conditions may often not reveal much about about what goes on in nature. Dr. Waage's choice of damselflies as research animals stems from his familiarity with their biology and his ability to manipulate individuals and their habitat. For example, his research will involve creating, removing, and altering egg-laying (oviposition) sites to test what features of them or their locations are important for choice of these sites. Determining what influences the choice of oviposition sites by females and by males of the damselfly Calopteryx maculata- is Dr. Waage's second goal. Oviposition sites (vegetation in streams) are key resources for individuals of both sexes. Females use them as places to put their eggs, and males defend them and use them as places to encounter females. Dr. Waage will investigate what features of oviposition sites and surrounding vegetation make them attractive to males and females. He will also investigate why there is so much temporal and spatial variation among sites in their use by males and females. Answering the simple question of what determines oviposition-site choices by C. maculata actually may help explain much of male and female behavior and the interactions between the sexes. Although this work is on one species, the findings will contribute to the general body of information on how insects deal with finding and exploiting resources. The third goal of this project is to test a number of general ideas currently in the behavioral-ecology literature. Like most rapidly growing disciplines, theory in behavioral ecology is far ahead of its testing. Dr. Waage will focus on the idea that female behavior (for example, where they lay eggs) may underlie or determine much of male behavior (for example, male choice of places to look for females, or competition among males for access to such places). Behavioral ecology has long been biased towards explaining things from the male perspective. These damselflies seem to be ideal animals with which to explore how male and female behaviors are related. Together with Dr. Waage's previous work, this project should enable him to show how female egg-laying behavior influences male behavior and how, in turn, male- female interactions influence the process of location and use of important resources.