Factors Affecting Performance in Foraging

动物行为计划非技术摘要提案编号：IBN-9816692 PI：Douglass H. Morse标题：影响觅食表现的因素本项目评估了差异觅食经验在决定个体一生成功后代生产中的作用。先前的研究表明，个体在选择能够提供最多猎物的狩猎地点方面的能力差异很大。 少年阶段是一个重要的经验来源，可能会影响觅食的努力，所有重要的成年生殖阶段。 这项工作探讨了从巢囊出现后的时期和之前的成年前蜕皮，使用蟹蜘蛛Misumena vatia，一个坐着等待捕食者，狩猎昆虫的花朵。 已知觅食历史的蜘蛛将暴露在各种狩猎地点（不同种类的花等），然后在如此熟悉的和新的底物上测试以评价这种经历的遗留。 实验室和现场实验被纳入研究中。这项工作对于开始剖析个体之间差异成功的因素非常重要，重点关注一个因素，该因素可能是最重要的，以确定在种群中保持哪些特征，从而推动行为的进化。 所采取的行为可能决定一个物种如何有效地利用现有资源，从而影响共存物种的特征以及生物群落的生物多样性。

Animal Behavior ProgramNontechnical AbstractProposal #: IBN-9816692PI: Douglass H. MorseTitle: Factors affecting performance in foragingThis project assesses the role of differential foraging experience in determining an individual's lifetime production of successful offspring. Previous work has shown that individuals vary greatly in their ability to choose hunting sites that provide access to the most prey. The juvenile stage is a major source of experience potentially affecting the foraging efforts of the all-important adult reproductive stage. This work examines the periods following emergence from the nest sac and preceding pre-adult molt, using the crab spider Misumena vatia, a sit-and-wait predator that hunts for insects on flowers. Spiders of known foraging history will be exposed to various hunting sites (different species of flowers, etc.), and then tested on thus-familiar and novel substrates to evaluate the carryover of such experience. Laboratory and field experiments are incorporated into the research.The work is important in commencing to dissect the factors responsible for differential success among individuals, focusing on a factor likely to be of greatest importance in establishing what traits are maintained in a population, thereby driving the evolution of behavior. The behavior adopted may determine how effectively a species can exploit available resources, in turn affecting the characteristics of coexisting species, as well as the biodiversity of biological communities.