Mate Location Tactics, Vision, and Thermoregulatory Behaviorin Insects

[9723160]鲁托斯基在动物的一生中，它们的行为经常面临相互矛盾的要求，而这些冲突如何在个体的一生中以及在进化过程中得到解决，是行为学研究中的重要问题。例如，当活动时，许多昆虫使用各种行为机制将它们的体温调节在一个喜欢的范围内。然而，当动物从事其他活动（如寻找配偶）时，体温调节也会发生。这些调整与同时进行的其他活动之间的相互作用还没有得到很好的理解。本研究解决了索诺兰沙漠蝴蝶的体温调节行为模式如何与视觉配偶定位努力相互作用。这种蝴蝶的雄性在早上占据和保护栖息的地方，等待雌性的出现。在早上，鲈鱼的偏好随着温度的升高而变化，以保持体温在它们喜欢的范围内。凉爽时，雄性会栖息在地上；然而，随着早晨的到来和气温的上升，雄性会转向离地面1米左右的凉爽栖息地。本研究考察了栖木偏好的这种由温度驱动的变化对雄性发现过往雌性和竞争雄性的能力的影响。如果栖地偏好导致蝴蝶的视觉系统相对于同种虫的飞行路径在空间中的定位发生变化，这可能会影响到路过的同种虫被探测到的可能性。为了解决这个问题，将采取几种研究方法。这些信息将收集到雌性和入侵雄性的飞行路线，整个视野的视觉灵敏度变化，以及雄性身体位置和方向的变化。视觉系统敏锐度的研究涉及复杂的假瞳孔分析程序，这将与瑞典隆德大学的一名研究人员合作完成，瑞典是世界上为数不多的可以进行这种分析的地方之一。另一种实验方法是在亚利桑那州的野外使用一个模型飞行装置（一个带有翅膀的机动假蝴蝶）来直接评估如何以及为什么探测到同种生物的概率会随着栖木偏好的变化而变化。生态变量，如背景对比将是特别感兴趣的。最终的结果应该是更好地理解昆虫如何看待它们的世界，并将行为、生理学和生态学结合起来，从而更全面地理解动物相互冲突的行为需求的直接和进化解决方案。

9723160 Rutowski In the course of their lives, animals are often faced with conflicting demands on their behavior and how these conflicts are resolved within an individual's life and over evolutionary time are important questions in the study of behavior. For example, when active, many insects use a variety of behavioral mechanisms to regulate their body temperature within a preferred range. However, thermoregulatory adjustments occur while animals are engaged in other activities, such as searching for mates. The interaction between these adjustments and the simultaneous performance of other activities are not well understood. This study addresses how thermoregulatory behavior patterns interact with visual mate-location efforts in a butterfly of the Sonoran desert. Males in this species of butterfly occupy and defend perching sites in the morning where they perch and wait for females to appear. During the morning perch preferences change as temperatures rise to maintain body temperature in their preferred range. When cool, males perch on the ground; however, as the morning progresses and temperature rises, males switch to cooler perches about 1 m off the ground. This study examines the impact of this thermally-driven change in perch preference on males' abilities to detect passing females and competing males. If perch preference leads to changes in how the butterfly's visual system is positioned in space relative to the flight paths of conspecifics, this may effect the likelihood that passing conspecifics will be detected. To address this question, several research approaches will be taken. Information will be gathered on the flight paths of females and intruding males, variation in visual acuity across the field of vision, and changes in male body position and orientation. Studies of visual system acuity involve a complex pseudopupil analysis procedure, which will be done in collaboration with a researcher at the University of Lund in Sweden, one of few places in the world where such analysis can be done. Another experimental approach will be to use a model flying device (a motorized dummy butterfly with wings attached) at field sites in Arizona to assess directly how and why the probability of detecting conspecifics changes with perch preference. Ecological variables such as background contrast will be of special interest. The end results should be a better understanding of how insects see their world, and a novel integration of behavior, physiology, and ecology that will permit a more comprehensive understanding of the immediate and evolutionary resolution of conflicting behavioral demands in animals.