Behavioral Ecology of Odonates

Waage博士的研究有三个相关的目标。虽然这项工作侧重于一种昆虫，但它与生境和雌性行为如何相互作用以及它们如何反过来影响雄性行为的问题具有更广泛的相关性，并且它有助于在野外条件下对假设进行实验测试的一般方法。Waage博士的第一个目标是继续开发方法来测试关于野外条件下行为原因的假设。这一点很重要，因为许多物种不能人工饲养，而且在简化的实验室条件下进行的实验往往不能揭示自然界发生的事情。Waage博士之所以选择豆娘作为研究动物，是因为他对豆娘的生物学很熟悉，而且他有能力操纵个体和它们的栖息地。例如，他的研究将包括创建、移除和改变产卵（产卵）地点，以测试它们的哪些特征或它们的位置对这些地点的选择是重要的。Waage博士的第二个目标是确定是什么影响了斑马鸟（Calopteryx maculata）雌性和雄性对产卵地点的选择。产卵地点（溪流中的植被）是雌雄个体的关键资源。雌性把它们作为产卵的地方，雄性保护它们，并把它们作为与雌性相遇的地方。Waage博士将调查产卵地点和周围植被的哪些特征使它们对雄性和雌性具有吸引力。他还将调查为什么在男性和女性使用的地点之间存在如此大的时间和空间差异。回答是什么决定了斑纹夜蛾产卵地点的选择这个简单的问题，实际上可能有助于解释许多雄性和雌性的行为以及两性之间的相互作用。虽然这项工作是针对一个物种，但这些发现将有助于了解昆虫如何寻找和利用资源的总体信息。该项目的第三个目标是测试目前行为生态学文献中的一些一般观点。像大多数快速发展的学科一样，行为生态学的理论远远领先于它的测试。Waage博士将专注于这样一种观点，即雌性的行为（例如，它们在哪里产卵）可能在很大程度上影响或决定雄性的行为（例如，雄性选择寻找雌性的地方，或者雄性之间为进入这些地方而进行的竞争）。行为生态学长期以来都倾向于从男性的角度来解释问题。这些豆娘似乎是探索雄性和雌性行为之间关系的理想动物。结合Waage博士之前的工作，这个项目应该使他能够展示雌性产卵行为如何影响雄性行为，以及反过来，雄性和雌性的相互作用如何影响重要资源的定位和使用过程。

Dr. Waage's research has three related goals. Although the work focuses on one species of insect, it has wider relevance to the question of how habitat and female behavior interact and how they in turn influence male behavior, and it contributes to the general methodology for experimental testing of hypotheses under field conditions. Dr. Waage's first goal is to continue to develop methods for testing hypotheses about the causes of behavior under field conditions. This is important because many species cannot be raised in captivity and because experiments done under simplified laboratory conditions may often not reveal much about about what goes on in nature. Dr. Waage's choice of damselflies as research animals stems from his familiarity with their biology and his ability to manipulate individuals and their habitat. For example, his research will involve creating, removing, and altering egg-laying (oviposition) sites to test what features of them or their locations are important for choice of these sites. Determining what influences the choice of oviposition sites by females and by males of the damselfly Calopteryx maculata- is Dr. Waage's second goal. Oviposition sites (vegetation in streams) are key resources for individuals of both sexes. Females use them as places to put their eggs, and males defend them and use them as places to encounter females. Dr. Waage will investigate what features of oviposition sites and surrounding vegetation make them attractive to males and females. He will also investigate why there is so much temporal and spatial variation among sites in their use by males and females. Answering the simple question of what determines oviposition-site choices by C. maculata actually may help explain much of male and female behavior and the interactions between the sexes. Although this work is on one species, the findings will contribute to the general body of information on how insects deal with finding and exploiting resources. The third goal of this project is to test a number of general ideas currently in the behavioral-ecology literature. Like most rapidly growing disciplines, theory in behavioral ecology is far ahead of its testing. Dr. Waage will focus on the idea that female behavior (for example, where they lay eggs) may underlie or determine much of male behavior (for example, male choice of places to look for females, or competition among males for access to such places). Behavioral ecology has long been biased towards explaining things from the male perspective. These damselflies seem to be ideal animals with which to explore how male and female behaviors are related. Together with Dr. Waage's previous work, this project should enable him to show how female egg-laying behavior influences male behavior and how, in turn, male- female interactions influence the process of location and use of important resources.