Mate Location Tactics, Vision, and Thermoregulatory Behaviorin Insects

9723160 Rutowski在他们的生活过程中，动物经常面临着相互冲突的要求，他们的行为和这些冲突是如何解决在一个人的生活和进化的时间是在行为研究的重要问题。 例如，当活跃时，许多昆虫使用各种行为机制来将它们的体温调节在优选的范围内。 然而，温度调节发生在动物从事其他活动时，例如寻找配偶。 这些调整和其他活动的同时执行之间的相互作用还没有得到很好的理解。 本研究讨论了如何温度调节行为模式相互作用的视觉伴侣定位的努力在索诺兰沙漠的蝴蝶。 这种蝴蝶的雄性在早上占据并保卫栖息地，在那里它们栖息并等待雌性出现。 在早晨，鲈鱼的偏好随着温度的升高而改变，以保持体温在他们喜欢的范围内。 当凉爽时，雄性栖息在地面上;然而，随着早晨的进展和温度的上升，雄性转向离地面约1米的较冷的栖息地。 本研究探讨了这种热驱动的鲈鱼偏好的变化对男性的能力，以检测通过女性和竞争的男性的影响。如果栖息偏好导致蝴蝶的视觉系统在空间中相对于同种的飞行路径定位的变化，这可能会影响通过同种被检测到的可能性。 为了解决这个问题，将采取几种研究方法。 将收集关于雌性和入侵雄性的飞行路线、视野中视力的变化以及雄性身体位置和方向的变化的信息。视觉系统敏锐度的研究涉及一个复杂的伪瞳孔分析程序，该程序将与瑞典隆德大学的研究人员合作完成，瑞典是世界上少数几个可以进行此类分析的地方之一。另一种实验方法将是使用模型飞行设备（一个机动假蝴蝶与翅膀连接）在亚利桑那州的现场直接评估如何以及为什么检测同种的概率与栖息偏好的变化。 生态变量，如背景对比度将特别感兴趣。 最终的结果应该是更好地理解昆虫如何看待它们的世界，以及行为，生理学和生态学的新整合，这将允许更全面地理解动物冲突行为需求的即时和进化解决方案。

9723160 Rutowski In the course of their lives, animals are often faced with conflicting demands on their behavior and how these conflicts are resolved within an individual's life and over evolutionary time are important questions in the study of behavior. For example, when active, many insects use a variety of behavioral mechanisms to regulate their body temperature within a preferred range. However, thermoregulatory adjustments occur while animals are engaged in other activities, such as searching for mates. The interaction between these adjustments and the simultaneous performance of other activities are not well understood. This study addresses how thermoregulatory behavior patterns interact with visual mate-location efforts in a butterfly of the Sonoran desert. Males in this species of butterfly occupy and defend perching sites in the morning where they perch and wait for females to appear. During the morning perch preferences change as temperatures rise to maintain body temperature in their preferred range. When cool, males perch on the ground; however, as the morning progresses and temperature rises, males switch to cooler perches about 1 m off the ground. This study examines the impact of this thermally-driven change in perch preference on males' abilities to detect passing females and competing males. If perch preference leads to changes in how the butterfly's visual system is positioned in space relative to the flight paths of conspecifics, this may effect the likelihood that passing conspecifics will be detected. To address this question, several research approaches will be taken. Information will be gathered on the flight paths of females and intruding males, variation in visual acuity across the field of vision, and changes in male body position and orientation. Studies of visual system acuity involve a complex pseudopupil analysis procedure, which will be done in collaboration with a researcher at the University of Lund in Sweden, one of few places in the world where such analysis can be done. Another experimental approach will be to use a model flying device (a motorized dummy butterfly with wings attached) at field sites in Arizona to assess directly how and why the probability of detecting conspecifics changes with perch preference. Ecological variables such as background contrast will be of special interest. The end results should be a better understanding of how insects see their world, and a novel integration of behavior, physiology, and ecology that will permit a more comprehensive understanding of the immediate and evolutionary resolution of conflicting behavioral demands in animals.