Shaking Youngsters and Shaken Adults: Female Beetles Eavesdrop on Larval Seed Vibrations to Make Egg-Laying Decisions.

ABSTRACT: Egg-laying decisions are critical for insects, and particularly those competing for limited resources. Sensory information used by females to mediate egg-laying decisions has been reported to be primarily chemical, but the role of vibration has received little attention. We tested the hypothesis that vibrational cues produced by feeding larvae occupying a seed influences egg-laying decisions amongst female cowpea beetles. This hypothesis is supported by three lines of evidence using two strains of the cowpea beetle (Callosobruchus maculatus), an Indian strain with choosy females and aggressively competing larvae and a Brazilian strain with less choosy females and larvae exhibiting an "accommodating" type of competition. First, in free-choice bioassays of seed selection, choosy Indian femal

SUBMITTER: Guedes RN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4768006 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature