1
|
Han S, Phillips BL, Elgar MA. Colony-level aggression escalates with the value of food resources. BMC Ecol Evol 2023; 23:18. [PMID: 37193951 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-023-02117-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2023] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/18/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Theory predicts that the level of escalation in animal contests is associated with the value of the contested resource. This fundamental prediction has been empirically confirmed by studies of dyadic contests but has not been tested experimentally in the collective context of group-living animals. Here, we used the Australian meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus as a model and employed a novel field experimental manipulation of the value of food that removes the potentially confounding effects of nutritional status of the competing individual workers. We draw on insights from the Geometric Framework for nutrition to investigate whether group contests between neighbouring colonies escalate according to the value to the colony of a contested food resource. RESULTS First, we show that colonies of I. purpureus value protein according to their past nutritional intake, deploying more foragers to collect protein if their previous diet had been supplemented with carbohydrate rather than with protein. Using this insight, we show that colonies contesting more highly valued food escalated the contest, by deploying more workers and engaging in lethal 'grappling' behaviour. CONCLUSION Our data confirm that a key prediction of contest theory, initially intended for dyadic contests, is similarly applicable to group contests. Specifically, we demonstrate, through a novel experimental procedure, that the contest behaviour of individual workers reflects the nutritional requirements of the colony, rather than that of individual workers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shaolin Han
- School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia.
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- Centre for Immunology & Infection, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China.
| | - Ben L Phillips
- School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia
| | - Mark A Elgar
- School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Wilson Rankin EE, Barney SK, Lozano GE. Reduced Water Negatively Impacts Social Bee Survival and Productivity Via Shifts in Floral Nutrition. JOURNAL OF INSECT SCIENCE (ONLINE) 2020; 20:5918281. [PMID: 33021636 PMCID: PMC7583269 DOI: 10.1093/jisesa/ieaa114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Pollinators provide a key ecosystem service vital for the survival and stability of the biosphere. Identifying factors influencing the plant-pollinator mutualism and pollinator management is necessary for maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Since healthy beehives require substantial amounts of carbohydrates (nectar) and protein (pollen) from forage plants such as clover, we must assess how resources offered by plants change under limited water conditions in order to fully understand how drought modifies the pollination mutualism. Here we document how reduced water availability leads to decreased nectar quality and quantity and decreased protein quality of pollen. Furthermore, we provide conclusive evidence that these lower quality resources lead to decreased survival and productivity in both developing honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). The results emphasize the importance of the nutritional effects of reduced water on bees when predicting shifts of pollination mutualisms under climate change.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah K Barney
- Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA
| | - Giselle E Lozano
- Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Pohl S, Frederickson ME, Elgar MA, Pierce NE. Colony Diet Influences Ant Worker Foraging and Attendance of Myrmecophilous Lycaenid Caterpillars. Front Ecol Evol 2016. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2016.00114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
|
4
|
Blamires SJ, Tseng YH, Wu CL, Toft S, Raubenheimer D, Tso IM. Spider web and silk performance landscapes across nutrient space. Sci Rep 2016; 6:26383. [PMID: 27216252 PMCID: PMC4877650 DOI: 10.1038/srep26383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2016] [Accepted: 04/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Predators have been shown to alter their foraging as a regulatory response to recent feeding history, but it remains unknown whether trap building predators modulate their traps similarly as a regulatory strategy. Here we fed the orb web spider Nephila pilipes either live crickets, dead crickets with webs stimulated by flies, or dead crickets without web stimulation, over 21 days to enforce spiders to differentially extract nutrients from a single prey source. In addition to the nutrients extracted we measured web architectures, silk tensile properties, silk amino acid compositions, and web tension after each feeding round. We then plotted web and silk "performance landscapes" across nutrient space. The landscapes had multiple peaks and troughs for each web and silk performance parameter. The findings suggest that N. pilipes plastically adjusts the chemical and physical properties of their web and silk in accordance with its nutritional history. Our study expands the application of the geometric framework foraging model to include a type of predatory trap. Whether it can be applied to other predatory traps requires further testing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sean J Blamires
- Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.,Evolution &Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth &Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
| | - Yi-Hsuan Tseng
- Department of Life Science, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
| | - Chung-Lin Wu
- Center for Measurement Standards, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu 30011, Taiwan
| | - Søren Toft
- Department of BioScience, Building 1540, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, DK-Aarhus 8000 C, Denmark
| | - David Raubenheimer
- The Charles Perkins Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science &School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia
| | - I-Min Tso
- Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan.,Department of Life Science, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Lihoreau M, Poissonnier LA, Isabel G, Dussutour A. Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high quality oviposition sites when choosing foods. J Exp Biol 2016; 219:2514-24. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.142257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2016] [Accepted: 06/06/2016] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Animals, from insects to human, select foods to regulate their acquisition of key nutrients in amounts and balances maximising fitness. In species where the nutrition of juveniles depends on parents, adults must make challenging foraging decisions that simultaneously address their own nutrient needs as well as those of the progeny. Here we examined how fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster, a species where individuals eat and lay eggs in decaying fruits, integrate feeding decisions (individual nutrition) and oviposition decisions (offspring nutrition) when foraging. Using cafeteria assays with artificial diets varying in concentrations and ratios of protein to carbohydrates, we show that Drosophila females exhibit complex foraging patterns, alternating between laying eggs on high carbohydrate foods and feeding on foods with different nutrient contents depending on their own nutritional state. Although larvae showed faster development on high protein foods, both survival and learning performances were higher on balanced foods. We suggest that the apparent mismatch between the oviposition preference of females for high carbohydrate foods and the high performances of larvae on balanced foods reflects a natural situation where high carbohydrate ripened fruits gradually enrich in proteinaceous yeast as they start rotting, thereby yielding optimal nutrition for the developing larvae. Our findings that animals with rudimentary parental care uncouple feeding and egg-laying decisions in order to balance their own diet and provide a nutritionally optimal environment to their progeny reveals unsuspected levels of complexity in the nutritional ecology of parent-offspring interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Lihoreau
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
| | - Laure-Anne Poissonnier
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
- Current address: School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, 5005 12 SA, Australia
| | - Guillaume Isabel
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
| | - Audrey Dussutour
- Research Center on Animal Cognition (CRCA), Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse University, CNRS, UPS, France
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Simpson SJ, Clissold FJ, Lihoreau M, Ponton F, Wilder SM, Raubenheimer D. Recent advances in the integrative nutrition of arthropods. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENTOMOLOGY 2015; 60:293-311. [PMID: 25341097 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ento-010814-020917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
In this review we highlight recent advances in four areas in which nutrition shapes the relationships between organisms: between plants and herbivores, between hosts and their microbiota, between individuals within groups and societies, and between species within food webs. We demonstrate that taking an explicitly multidimensional view of nutrition and employing the logic of the geometric framework for nutrition provide novel insights and offer a means of integration across different levels of organization, from individuals to ecosystems.
Collapse
|
7
|
Poissonnier LA, Simpson SJ, Dussutour A. Observations of the "egg white injury" in ants. PLoS One 2014; 9:e112801. [PMID: 25392989 PMCID: PMC4231089 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2014] [Accepted: 10/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
A key determinant of the relationship between diet and longevity is the balance of protein to carbohydrate in the diet. Eating excess protein relative to carbohydrate shortens lifespan in solitary and social insects. Here we explored how lifespan and behavior in ants was affected by the quality of protein ingested and the presence of associated antinutrients (i.e. compounds that interfere with the absorption of nutrients). We tested diets prepared with either egg white protein only or a protein mixture. Egg white contains an anti-nutrient called avidin. Avidin binds to the B vitamin biotin, preventing its absorption. First, we demonstrate that an egg-white diet was twice as deleterious as a protein-mixture diet. Second, we show that ingestion of egg-white diet drastically affected social behavior, triggering elevated levels of aggression within the colony. Lastly, we reveal that by adding biotin to the egg white diet we were able to lessen its detrimental effects. This latest result suggests that ants suffered biotin deficiency when fed the egg white diet. In conclusion, anti-nutrients were known to affect health and performance of animals, but this is the first study showing that anti-nutrients also lead to severe changes in behavior.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laure-Anne Poissonnier
- Research Center on Animal Cognition, The National Center for Scientific Research and Toulouse University, Toulouse, France
| | - Stephen J. Simpson
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South of Wales, Australia
| | - Audrey Dussutour
- Research Center on Animal Cognition, The National Center for Scientific Research and Toulouse University, Toulouse, France
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Lihoreau M, Buhl C, Charleston MA, Sword GA, Raubenheimer D, Simpson SJ. Modelling nutrition across organizational levels: from individuals to superorganisms. JOURNAL OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY 2014; 69:2-11. [PMID: 24681322 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2014.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2013] [Revised: 03/06/2014] [Accepted: 03/12/2014] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
The Geometric Framework for nutrition has been increasingly used to describe how individual animals regulate their intake of multiple nutrients to maintain target physiological states maximizing growth and reproduction. However, only a few studies have considered the potential influences of the social context in which these nutritional decisions are made. Social insects, for instance, have evolved extreme levels of nutritional interdependence in which food collection, processing, storage and disposal are performed by different individuals with different nutritional needs. These social interactions considerably complicate nutrition and raise the question of how nutrient regulation is achieved at multiple organizational levels, by individuals and groups. Here, we explore the connections between individual- and collective-level nutrition by developing a modelling framework integrating concepts of nutritional geometry into individual-based models. Using this approach, we investigate how simple nutritional interactions between individuals can mediate a range of emergent collective-level phenomena in social arthropods (insects and spiders) and provide examples of novel and empirically testable predictions. We discuss how our approach could be expanded to a wider range of species and social systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Lihoreau
- The Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Toulouse 31062, France; Université de Toulouse (UPS), Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Toulouse 31062, France.
| | - Camille Buhl
- The Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Michael A Charleston
- School of Information Technologies, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Gregory A Sword
- Department of Entomology, Interdisciplinary Faculty of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Texas A&M University, TX 77843-2475, USA
| | - David Raubenheimer
- The Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Stephen J Simpson
- The Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Dussutour A, Simpson SJ. Ant workers die young and colonies collapse when fed a high-protein diet. Proc Biol Sci 2012; 279:2402-8. [PMID: 22357267 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
A key determinant of the relationship between diet and longevity is the balance of protein and carbohydrate in the diet. Eating excess protein relative to carbohydrate shortens lifespan in solitary insects. Here, we investigated the link between high-protein diet and longevity, both at the level of individual ants and colonies in black garden ants, Lasius niger. We explored how lifespan was affected by the dietary protein-to-carbohydrate ratio and the duration of exposure to a high-protein diet. We show that (i) restriction to high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets decreased worker lifespan by up to 10-fold; (ii) reduction in lifespan on such diets was mainly due to elevated intake of protein rather than lack of carbohydrate; and (iii) only one day of exposure to a high-protein diet had dire consequences for workers and the colony, reducing population size by more than 20 per cent.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A Dussutour
- Centre de Recherches sur cognition Animale, CNRS UMR 5169, Université Paul Sabatier, 31062 Toulouse, France.
| | | |
Collapse
|
10
|
Gill KP, van Wilgenburg E, Taylor P, Elgar MA. Collective retention and transmission of chemical signals in a social insect. Naturwissenschaften 2012; 99:245-8. [PMID: 22328072 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-012-0891-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2011] [Revised: 01/26/2012] [Accepted: 01/31/2012] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Social insect colonies exhibit highly coordinated responses to ecological challenges by acquiring information that is disseminated throughout the colony. Some responses are coordinated directly from the signals produced by individuals that acquired the information. Other responses may require information to be transferred indirectly through a third party, thereby requiring colony-wide retention of information. Social insects use colony signature odours to distinguish between nestmates and non-nestmates, and the level of aggression between non-nestmates typically varies according to the distance between colonies and thus their history of interactions. Such coordinated, colony-specific responses may require information about particular odours to be disseminated and retained across the colony. Our field experiments with weaver ants reveal colony-wide, indirect acquisition and retention of the signature odours of a different colony with which they had experienced aggression. These data highlight the significance of interaction history and suggest the presence of a collective memory.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Katherine P Gill
- Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|