Doctoral Dissertation Research: Insect Consumption in Sympatric Primate Species

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Insects are found in the diet of many primates, and in humans they are an underappreciated but significant component of many non-Western diets. Insects are particularly important for hunter-gatherer societies and groups living in tropical regions. However, despite their dietary importance, the role that insects have played over the course of primate and human evolution and in living primates is understudied. Gaining a complete understanding of entomophagy (insect eating) has been challenging historically because primate insect consumption is difficult to observe, and because insects themselves are often cryptic. However, recent advances in genetic methods have made insect prey identification more practical, allowing for the evaluation of explicit hypotheses related to entomophagy that were previously untestable. This project incorporates methodologies from anthropology, ecology, entomology, and molecular biology to examine insect consumption in closely related monkey species. The project will provide training of a woman (Co-PI) in a broad range of cross-disciplinary scientific methods, thus increasing the participation of women in science. This project will examine variation in insect consumption by sympatric, omnivorous primates to test the hypothesis that differential use of insects as a food resource facilitates coexistence of omnivorous species. This will be accomplished by integrating advanced molecular methods and noninvasive field data collection to identify insect prey consumed by redtail monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) and blue monkeys (C. mitis): two omnivorous cercopithecine primate species. These data will be used to investigate variation in entomophagy between species, sex-class, and seasons. Results of this research will add to our understanding of the influences of ecological and life history variables on primate insect consumption, and will have implications for interpreting the role of entomophagy in feeding niche differentiation and coexistence among closely related primate species.