Altruistic defence behaviours in aphids

Clicks: 208
ID: 14290
2010
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Popular

Ranked #41 of 63 articles by views in bmc evolutionary biology

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract

Abstract

Background

Altruistic anti-predatory behaviours pose an evolutionary problem because they are costly to the actor and beneficial to the recipients. Altruistic behaviours can evolve through indirect fitness benefits when directed toward kin. The altruistic nature of anti-predatory behaviours is often difficult to establish because the actor can obtain direct fitness benefits, or the behaviour could result from selfish coercion by others, especially in eusocial animals. Non-eusocial parthenogenetically reproducing aphids form colonies of clone-mates, which are ideal to test the altruistic nature of anti-predatory defence behaviours. Many aphids release cornicle secretions when attacked by natural enemies such as parasitoids. These secretions contain an alarm pheromone that alerts neighbours (clone-mates) of danger, thereby providing indirect fitness benefits to the actor. However, contact with cornicle secretions also hampers an attacker and could provide direct fitness to the actor.

Results

We tested the hypothesis that cornicle secretions are altruistic by assessing direct and indirect fitness consequences of smearing cornicle secretions onto an attacker, and by manipulating the number of clone-mates that could benefit from the behaviour. We observed parasitoids, Aphidius rhopalosiphi, foraging singly in patches of the cereal aphid Sitobion avenae of varied patch size (2, 6, and 12 aphids). Aphids that smeared parasitoids did not benefit from a reduced probability of parasitism, or increase the parasitoids' handling time. Smeared parasitoids, however, spent proportionately more time grooming and less time foraging, which resulted in a decreased host-encounter and oviposition rate within the host patch. In addition, individual smearing rate increased with the number of clone-mates in the colony.

Conclusions

Cornicle secretions of aphids were altruistic against parasitoids, as they provided no direct fitness benefits to secretion-releasing individuals, only indirect fitness benefits through neighbouring clone-mates. Moreover, the use of cornicle secretions was consistent with their altruistic nature, because the occurrence of this behaviour increased with the size of indirect fitness benefits, the number of clone-mates that can benefit. This study provides evidence for a case of kin-directed altruistic defence outside eusocial animals.

Reference Key
jacques2010altruisticbmc Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Jacques, Brodeur;Guy, Boivin;Gi-Mick, Wu;Luc-Alain, Giraldeau;Yannick, Outreman;
Journal bmc evolutionary biology
Year 2010
DOI
DOI not found
URL
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/19
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.