Prenatal chemosensory learning by the predatory mite Neoseiulus californicus

Parental and personal experience drive personality formation and individual niche diversification in group-living mites

The idea of individual niche specialization suggests that individuals should diversify in their realized niches to mitigate inter-individual conflict. We tested the hypothesis that parental and early-life diet experiences drive individual foraging specialization and animal personality formation in plant-inhabiting predatory mites Phytoseiulus persimilis and Phytoseiulus macropilis. Both species are specialized predators of herbivorous spider mites. Adult females and males, whose parents had been exposed to either prey eggs or mobile prey, and/or who themselves had experienced either eggs or mobile prey during juvenile development, were tested for their prey life stage preference, and exploration and activity patterns. Parental and/or personal experience of a given prey life stage exerted species- and sex-dependent effects on the adult predators' mean and individual foraging phenotypes, with parental plus early-life effects being the strongest. Repeatability in activity and exploration was linked to prey life stage preference, pointing at co-variation of personality formation and individualized foraging niches.

Acquired preferences for a novel food odor do not become stronger or stable after multiple generations of odor feeding in Bicyclus anynana butterfly larvae

Many herbivorous insects have specific host-plant preferences, and it is unclear how these preferences evolved. Previously, we found that Bicyclus anynana larvae can learn to prefer novel food odors from eating leaves with those odors and transmit those learned preferences to the next generation. It is uncertain whether such acquired odor preferences can increase across generations of repeated odor feeding and be maintained even in the absence of odor. In this study, we fed larvae with novel banana odor-coated leaves (odor-fed larvae) for five consecutive generations, without selection on behavioral choices, and measured how larval innate preferences changed over time. Then, we removed the odor stimulus from a larval subgroup, while the other group continued to be odor-fed. Our results show that larvae learned to prefer the novel odor within a generation of odor feeding and transmitted the learned preference to the next generation, as previously found. Odor-fed larvae preferred odor significantly more compared to control larvae across five generations of repeated odor or control feeding. However, this led neither to increased odor preference, nor its stabilization. This suggests that when butterfly larvae feed on a new host, a preference for that novel food plant may develop and be transmitted to the next generation, but this preference lasts for a single generation and disappears once the odor stimulus is removed.

Frog embryos use multiple levels of temporal pattern in risk assessment for vibration-cued escape hatching

Stereotyped signals can be a fast, effective means of communicating danger, but animals assessing predation risk must often use more variable incidental cues. Red eyed-treefrog, Agalychnis callidryas, embryos hatch prematurely to escape from egg predators, cued by vibrations in attacks, but benign rain generates vibrations with overlapping properties. Facing high false-alarm costs, embryos use multiple vibration properties to inform hatching, including temporal pattern elements such as pulse durations and inter-pulse intervals. However, measures of snake and rain vibration as simple pulse-interval patterns are a poor match to embryo behavior. We used vibration playbacks to assess if embryos use a second level of temporal pattern, long gaps within a rhythmic pattern, as indicators of risks. Long vibration-free periods are common during snake attacks but absent from hard rain. Long gaps after a few initial vibrations increase the hatching response to a subsequent vibration series. Moreover, vibration patterns as short as three pulses, separated by long periods of silence, can induce as much hatching as rhythmic pulse series with five times more vibration. Embryos can retain information that increases hatching over at least 45 s of silence. This work highlights that embryo behavior is contextually modulated in complex ways. Identical vibration pulses, pulse groups, and periods of silence can be treated as risk cues in some contexts and not in others. Embryos employ a multi-faceted decision-making process to effectively distinguish between risk cues and benign stimuli.

Transgenerational effects of grandparental and parental diets combine with early-life learning to shape adaptive foraging phenotypes in Amblyseius swirskii

Transgenerational effects abound in animals. While a great deal of research has been dedicated to the effects of maternal stressors such as diet deficiency, social deprivation or predation risk on offspring phenotypes, we have a poor understanding of the adaptive value of transgenerational effects spanning across multiple generations under benign conditions and the relative weight of multigenerational effects. Here we show that grandparental and parental diet experiences combine with personal early-life learning to form adaptive foraging phenotypes in adult plant-inhabiting predatory mites Amblyseius swirskii. Our findings provide insights into transgenerational plasticity caused by persistent versus varying conditions in multiple ancestral generations and show that transgenerational effects may be adaptive in non-matching ancestor and offspring environments.

Learned predators enhance biological control via organizational upward and trophic top-down cascades

Learning is a behavioural change based on memory of previous experiences and a ubiquitous phenomenon in animals. Learning effects are commonly life-stage- and age-specific. In many animals, early life experiences lead to pervasive and persistent behavioural changes.There is broad consensus that learning has far-reaching implications to biological control. Proximate and ultimate factors of individual learning by parasitoids and true predators are relatively well understood, yet the consequences of learning to higher organizational levels, populations and communities, and top-down trophic cascades are unexplored.We addressed this issue using a tri-trophic system consisting of predatory mites Amblyseius swirskii, Western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis and whole common bean plants, Phaseolus vulgaris. F. occidentalis are notorious horticultural pests that are difficult to control. Therefore, practitioners have much to gain by optimizing biological control of thrips.Previous studies have shown that early life experience of thrips by A. swirskii improves foraging on thrips later in life due to decreased prey recognition times and increased predation rates, together enhancing predator fecundity. Here, we hypothesized that early learning by A. swirskii enhances biological control of thrips via immediate and cascading effects. We predicted that release of thrips-experienced predators enhances predator population growth and thrips suppression and reduces plant damage as compared to release of thrips-naïve predators.The behavioural changes brought about by early learning cascaded up to the population and community levels. Thrips-experienced predators caused favourable immediate and cascading effects that could not be compensated for in populations founded by thrips-naïve predators. Populations founded by thrips-experienced predators grew faster, reached higher abundances, were more efficacious in suppressing an emerging thrips population and kept plant damage at lower levels than populations founded by thrips-naïve predators. Plant fecundity correlated negatively with thrips abundance and positively with predatory mite abundance. Improved biological control was mainly due to thrips-experienced founders providing for a head-start in predator population growth and thrips suppression. Synthesis and applications. Our study suggests that learned natural enemies have high potential to optimize augmentative biological control on a larger scale due to favourably modulating organizational upward and trophic top-down cascades.

Constitutive and Operational Variation of Learning in Foraging Predatory Mites

Learning is widely documented across animal taxa but studies stringently scrutinizing the causes of constitutive or operational variation of learning among populations and individuals are scarce. The ability to learn is genetically determined and subject to constitutive variation while the performance in learning depends on the immediate circumstances and is subject to operational variation. We assessed variation in learning ability and performance of plant-inhabiting predatory mites, Amblyseius swirskii, caused by population origin, rearing diet, and type of experience. Using an early learning foraging paradigm, we determined that homogeneous single prey environments did not select for reduced learning ability, as compared to natural prey-diverse environments, whereas a multi-generational pollen diet resulted in loss of learning, as compared to a diet of live prey. Associative learning produced stronger effects than non-associative learning but both types of experience produced persistent memory. Our study represents a key example of environmentally caused variation in learning ability and performance.

Behavioral development in embryonic and early juvenile cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis)

Though a mollusc, the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis possesses a sophisticated brain, advanced sensory systems, and a large behavioral repertoire. Cuttlefish provide a unique perspective on animal behavior due to their phylogenic distance from more traditional (vertebrate) models. S. officinalis is well-suited to addressing questions of behavioral ontogeny. As embryos, they can perceive and learn from their environment and experience no direct parental care. A marked progression in learning and behavior is observed during late embryonic and early juvenile development. This improvement is concomitant with expansion and maturation of the vertical lobe, the cephalopod analog of the mammalian hippocampus. This review synthesizes existing knowledge regarding embryonic and juvenile development in this species in an effort to better understand cuttlefish behavior and animal behavior in general. It will serve as a guide to future researchers and encourage greater awareness of the utility of this species to behavioral science.

Predation risk-mediated maternal effects in the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae

Predation risk is a strong selective force shaping prey morphology, physiology, life history and/or behavior. As a prime stressor, predation risk may even induce trans-generational alterations, called maternal effects. Accordingly, maternal predation risk during offspring production may influence offspring life history and anti-predator behavior. Here, we assessed whether different levels of predation risk, posed by the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis, induce graded maternal effects in its prey, the herbivorous two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae. First, we generated four types of predation risk-stressed spider mite mothers by exposing them to living predators, direct and indirect predator cue combinations or no predator cues, respectively. Then, we investigated the life history (offspring developmental time, sex) and anti-predator response (activity, position on the leaf) of their offspring on leaves with and without direct and indirect predator cues. Maternal stress, no matter of the predation risk level, prolonged the offspring developmental time, as compared to offspring from unstressed mothers. This pattern was more pronounced on leaves with than without predator cues. Offspring from stressed mothers resided more likely on the leaf blade than close to the leaf vein. Offspring sex ratio and activity were not influenced by maternal predation risk but activity was higher on leaves with than without predator cues. We argue that the prolonged developmental time is non-adaptive, yet the changed site preference is adaptive because reducing the encounter likelihood with predators. Our study represents a key example for predation risk-mediated maternal effects on developmental trajectories of offspring.

Yolk hormones influence in ovo chemosensory learning, growth, and feeding behavior in domestic chicks

In this study, we assessed whether prenatal exposure to elevated yolk steroid hormones can influence in ovo chemosensory learning and the behavior of domestic chicks. We simulated a maternal environmental challenge by experimentally enhancing yolk progesterone, testosterone, and estradiol concentrations in hen eggs prior to incubation. The embryos from these hormones-treated eggs (HO) as well as sham embryos (O) that had received the vehicle-only were exposed to the odor of fish oil (menhaden) between embryonic Days 11 and 20. An additional group of control embryos (C) was not exposed to the odor. All chicks were tested following hatching for their feeding preferences between foods that were or were not odorized with the menhaden odor. In the 3-min choice tests, the behavior of O chicks differed significantly according to the type of food whereas C and HO chicks showed no preference between odorized and non-odorized food. Our result suggests weaker response in HO chicks. In addition, HO chicks showed impaired growth and reduced intake of an unfamiliar food on the 24-h time scale compared to controls. Our data suggest that embryonic exposure to increased yolk hormone levels can alter growth, chemosensory learning, and the development of feeding behaviors.

Transient and permanent experience with fatty acids changes Drosophila melanogaster preference and fitness

Food and host-preference relies on genetic adaptation and sensory experience. In vertebrates, experience with food-related cues during early development can change adult preference. This is also true in holometabolous insects, which undergo a drastic nervous system remodelling during their complete metamorphosis, but remains uncertain in Drosophila melanogaster. We have conditioned D. melanogaster with oleic (C18:1) and stearic (C18:0) acids, two common dietary fatty acids, respectively preferred by larvae and adult. Wild-type individuals exposed either during a transient period of development-from embryo to adult-or more permanently-during one to ten generation cycles-were affected by such conditioning. In particular, the oviposition preference of females exposed to each fatty acid during larval development was affected without cross-effect indicating the specificity of each substance. Permanent exposure to each fatty acid also drastically changed oviposition preference as well as major fitness traits (development duration, sex-ratio, fecundity, adult lethality). This suggests that D. melanogaster ability to adapt to new food sources is determined by its genetic and sensory plasticity both of which may explain the success of this generalist-diet species.