Department of Biology, Carleton University, I125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIS 5B6.
J Insect Sci. 2011;11:63. doi: 10.1673/031.011.6301.
Phosphorus is extremely limited in the environment, often being 10-20 times lower in plants than what invertebrate herbivores require. This mismatch between resource availability and resource need can profoundly influence herbivore life history traits and fitness. This study investigated how dietary phosphorus availability influenced invertebrate growth, development time, consumption, condition, and lifespan using juvenile European house crickets, Acheta domesticus L. (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Crickets reared on high phosphorus diets ate more food, gained more weight, were in better condition at maturity, and contained more phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon in their bodies at death than crickets reared on low phosphorus diets. There was also a trend for crickets reared on high phosphorus diets to become larger adults (interaction with weight prior to the start of the experiment). These findings can be added to the small but growing number of studies that reveal the importance of phosphorus to insect life history traits. Future research should explore the importance of dietary phosphorus availability relative to protein, lipid, and carbohydrate availability.
磷在环境中极为有限，通常在植物中的含量比无脊椎草食动物所需的含量低 10-20 倍。这种资源可利用性与资源需求之间的不匹配会深刻影响草食动物的生活史特征和适应性。本研究利用欧洲家蟋（Orthoptera: Gryllidae）的幼虫，探讨了饮食中磷的可利用性如何影响无脊椎动物的生长、发育时间、摄食量、状况和寿命。在高磷饮食中饲养的蟋蟀比在低磷饮食中饲养的蟋蟀吃得更多，体重增加更多，在成熟时的状况更好，并且在死亡时体内的磷、氮和碳含量更高。在高磷饮食中饲养的蟋蟀也有长成更大的成虫的趋势（与实验开始前的体重有关）。这些发现可以补充到少数揭示磷对昆虫生活史特征重要性的研究中。未来的研究应该探索饮食中磷的可利用性相对于蛋白质、脂质和碳水化合物的可利用性的重要性。
