Resource Utilization and Coevolution of Seed Insect Predators

我认为，在种子捕食系统中的生物相互作用的生态和进化的影响，橡子昆虫捕食的研究的基础上。此外，我还扩展了另一种方法来更准确地理解昆虫与植物的相互作用。种子为各种动物提供了高营养的食物供应。发现许多种子在成熟之前可能会被捕食者丢失并不奇怪。应该注意的是，当种子捕食以密度依赖的方式减少种子时，它将控制种群。然而，如果捕食者区分基因型，它将作为一种选择力。有几种方法，植物可以采用减少种子损失的昆虫捕食者在predisporsal阶段。除了形态学和化学防御，还有一些其他的逃避策略。一种是修改花期以躲避捕食者。另一种策略是通过降低觅食效率来减少花朵的大小。有效的策略特别是在森林树木中是masting：长时间间隔生产大量种子。在丰年里，捕食者因食物过剩而心满意足，种子成活率很高。在歉收的年份，捕食者的数量减少，可能无法迅速增加。这种策略的一个基本特征是，在一个区域中共享同一捕食者的所有树木应该同步它们的桅杆周期。任何在通常非桅杆年桅杆的单独树木都会受到种子捕食者的独家关注。同步可以通过对某些环境线索（例如以适当频率出现的一组给定天气条件）的遗传固定的共享响应来实现。大型种子作物的间隔期大多为2至4年。

I argue the ecological and evolutionary implications of biological interactions in a seed-predator system, based on the study on acorn insect predation. Also, I expand an alternative approach to a more exact understanding of insect-plant interactions.Seeds provide highly nutritive food supply to a wide variety of animals. It is not surprising to find that many seeds may be lost to predators before ripening. It should be noted that seed predation will control the population when it reduces the seed in a density dependent manner. However, if the predator differentiates between genotypes, It will act as a selective forces.There are several means which plants could employ to reduce seed loss to insect predators during the predisporsal phase. In addititon to morphological and chemical defenses, there are some other evasion tactics. One is to modify the flowering period to escape the predator. Another tactic is simply the reduction of flower size, by reducing foraging efficiency.Effective strategy especially in forest trees is masting : the production of large crops of seeds at long intervals. In a mast year the predators are satiated by a surplus of food, and seed survive to establish seedlings will be high. In the lean years the predator population is reduced, and may be unable to build up quickly. An essential feature of this strategy is that all the trees in one area which share the same predator should synchronize their masting cycle. Any individual tree which masted in a generally non-mast year would be subjected to the exclusive attention of the seed predators. Synchron may be achieved by a genetically fixed, shared response to some environmental cue, such as a given set of weather conditions which occur at the appropriate frequency. The intervals between large seed crops are mostly in the two to four year range.