Material affects attack rates on dummy caterpillars in tropical forest where arthropod predators dominate: an experiment using clay and dough dummies with green colourants on various plant species

0455011 - BC 2016 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Sam, Kateřina - Remmel, T. - Molleman, F.
Material affects attack rates on dummy caterpillars in tropical forest where arthropod predators dominate: an experiment using clay and dough dummies with green colourants on various plant species.
Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. Roč. 157, č. 3 (2015), s. 317-324. ISSN 0013-8703. E-ISSN 1570-7458
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GP14-32024P
Grant - others:GA JU(CZ) 156/2013/P
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : artificial prey * field method * larval mortality
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 1.442, year: 2015
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eea.12367/pdf

Predation can be one of the key factors that determine abundance in insect herbivore communities. Predation can drive both evolution of body size, and anti-predator traits. Population dynamics and selection pressures will depend on the identity of dominant predators in the system, and these may vary substantially among habitats. Arthropods emerge as chief predators on caterpillars in the understorey of non-montane tropical forest, whereas birds dominate elsewhere. We evaluated marks on dummy caterpillars that differed in size, material (clay vs. dough), colourant, and plant species on which dummy caterpillars were exposed. We included live caterpillars to estimate the extent to which studies using artificial caterpillars reflect actual levels of predation. Ants and wasps were the most important attackers of dummy caterpillars, whereas bug and beetle damage was very rare, and no bird or small mammal damage was observed. Daily attack rates did not differ significantly from apparent mortality of live caterpillars, but dummy caterpillars made from dough were attacked more frequently than those from clay. Caterpillars of different colour and size, and caterpillars exposed on different plant species had the same chances to be predated. This is in contrast to results from temperate area studies where birds dominate and are not affected by dummy caterpillar material, but prefer larger caterpillars. Our results are consistent with dominant predators on tropical forest caterpillars being invertebrates that are more chemically than visually oriented, so that: (1)material used for dummy caterpillars is important, (2) background matching is relatively unimportant, and (3) being large may have less of a cost. These patterns in predation might facilitate polyphagy and evolution of large body size in tropical Lepidoptera.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0255667