PRF: The Role of Flight Muscle Ratios in Aerial Interactionsof Flying Insects

许多昆虫捕捉猎物，躲避捕食者，并利用快速机动飞行的短时间爆发来争夺配偶。最近的实验结果表明，最大的短爆发飞行性能强烈地依赖于飞行肌肉比(FMR；飞行肌肉质量与身体质量的比率)。这一结果表明，FMR高的动物通常应该能够在空中比赛中表现得比FMR低的动物更好。三项分析将用来探讨这一假说。第一种方法将被盗苍蝇捕获的猎物的FMR与逃脱的猎物的FMR以及所有潜在猎物的FMR进行比较。个体盗蝇之间的FMR差异如何影响觅食成功将被确定。第二项研究比较了可口蝴蝶和难吃蝴蝶的FMR，以确定捕食频率的差异是否导致蝴蝶在其组织中分配质量的方式发生了变化。第三项研究考察了雄性蜻蜓的FMR的种间变异如何随雌性产卵的空间模式而变化。有选择地在少数偏爱地点产卵的雌性，应该对雄性特征进行强有力的选择，以便对这些地点进行防空防御。这些分析的结果可能表明，质量分配对飞行昆虫来说是一个基本的和深刻的生态学问题，也许对一般飞行动物也是如此。工作将在布朗大学、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校和巴拿马史密森热带研究所进行。

.j.>Many insects capture prey, escape from predators, and compete for mates by utilizing short bursts of rapid maneuverable flight. Recent experimental results indicate that maximum short-burst flight performance depends strongly on flight muscle ratio (FMR; the ratio of flight muscle mass to body mass). This result suggests that animals with high FMRs should generally be able to outperform animals with lower FMRs in aerial contests. Three analyses will be used to explore this hypothesis. The first compares FMRs of prey captured by robber flies with FMRs of prey that escape, and with FMRs of all potential prey. How FMR variation among individual robber flies affects foraging success will be determined. The second study compares FMRs of palatable butterflies with FMRs of unpalatable butterflies, to determine if differences in predation frequency have resulted in variation in the way butterflies distribute mass among their tissues. The third study examines how interspecific variation in FMRs of male dragonflies varies with the spatial pattern of female oviposition. Females that oviposit selectively, in a few preferred sites, should impose strong selection for male traits that allow aerial defense of these sites. Results of these analyses may demonstrate that mass allocation is a basic and ecologically profound problem for flying insects, and perhaps for flying animals in general. Work will be performed at Brown University, The University of Texas at Austin, and the Smithsonial Tropical Research Institute in Panama.