Aggressive Chemical Mimicry of Prey Pheromones

猎物信息素的攻击性化学模仿

• 批准号: 9722828
• 负责人: Kenneth Haynes
• 金额: $ 15.85万
• 依托单位: University of Kentucky Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-07-15 至 2002-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9722828&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Aggressive; Chemical; Mimicry; Prey; Pheromones

9722828 Aggressive Chemical Mimicry of Prey Pheromones Evolutionary specialization of a predator on a few prey species has potential advantages and disadvantages. Such a predator can evolve to become highly efficient at finding, handling, and utilizing its prey, but the predator becomes dependent on availability of these particular prey, which could be costly in years of prey scarcity. The bolas spider Mastophora hutchinsoni is an extremely specialized predator. The adult female emits chemical attractants that mimic the sex pheromones of its moth prey, a form of aggressive chemical mimicry. The spider exploits the inherent mate-finding behavior of its victims, which are male moths. When prey approach the spider, it strikes them with a sticky ball at the end of a short thread. This capture device, called a bolas, represents a highly reduced web that the spider swings with one of its forelegs. Two moth species, one active early at night and the other late at night, account for more than 90% of this predator's prey; only two other moth species are ever captured. To attract mates, female moths of the two principal prey species release blends of chemical compounds that do not overlap in their components. The spider could produce a master blend of all these components, but preliminary results indicate this would make the attractant much less efficient in luring one of the spider's two principal prey species. If the spider could adjust its attractant blend to predictable and unpredictable variation in prey abundance, it would be a much more efficient predator and could minimize a major disadvantage of prey specialization. In this research, we propose to use a combination of chemical, electrophysiological, and behavioral approaches to determine if this bolas spider shows flexibility in its behavior or mimetic signal to improve its hunting effectiveness. Specific questions to be addressed include the following: (1) Does the spider's emitted signal change over the cou rse of a night to correspond with the predictably different diel patterns of sexual activity of its principal prey species? (2) Does the emitted signal vary seasonally to correspond with predictable changes in abundance of its prey species? (3) Do hunting tactics and the emitted signal vary plastically with unpredictable prey availability? Studies of this system will lead to an understanding of tradeoffs involved in the evolution of exploitaiton of chemical communication and the role of behavioral plasticity in minimizing the costs of specialization.

9722828攻击性化学模仿猎物信息素进化专业化的捕食者对一些猎物物种有潜在的优势和劣势。 这样的捕食者可以进化到在寻找、处理和利用猎物方面变得高效，但捕食者变得依赖于这些特定猎物的可用性，这在猎物稀缺的年份中可能会付出高昂的代价。Mastophora hutchinsoni是一种非常专业的捕食者。成年雌蛾释放化学引诱剂，模仿其蛾猎物的性信息素，这是一种攻击性化学模仿的形式。 蜘蛛利用其受害者（雄性飞蛾）固有的求偶行为。当猎物接近蜘蛛时，它会用一根短线末端的粘性球攻击猎物。这个捕获装置，称为bolas，代表了一个高度简化的蜘蛛网，蜘蛛用它的一只前腿摆动。两种蛾类，一种在深夜活动，占这种捕食者猎物的90%以上;只有另外两种蛾类被捕获过。为了吸引配偶，这两种主要猎物的雌蛾会释放成分不重叠的混合化合物。蜘蛛可以产生所有这些成分的主混合物，但初步结果表明，这将使引诱剂在引诱蜘蛛的两个主要猎物物种之一时效率低得多。如果蜘蛛能够调整其引诱剂的混合物，以适应猎物丰度的可预测和不可预测的变化，它将是一个更有效的捕食者，并可以最大限度地减少猎物专业化的主要缺点。在这项研究中，我们建议使用化学，电生理和行为的方法相结合，以确定这种bolas蜘蛛是否表现出灵活的行为或模仿信号，以提高其狩猎效率。具体的问题包括：（1）蜘蛛发出的信号在一个晚上的过程中变化，以对应于其主要猎物物种的性活动的可预测的不同昼夜模式？(2)发出的信号是否随季节变化，以符合其猎物物种丰度的可预测变化？ (3)狩猎策略和发射的信号是否随不可预测的猎物可用性而发生可塑性变化？ 对这个系统的研究将有助于理解化学通讯的开发过程中所涉及的权衡，以及行为可塑性在最大限度地减少专业化成本中的作用。