Alcalay Yehonatan, Barkae Erez David, Ovadia Ofer, Scharf Inon
Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Behav Processes. 2014 Mar;103:105-11. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2013.11.009. Epub 2013 Dec 4.
Pit-building antlion larvae are opportunistic predators that dig conical pits in loose soils, and prey on small arthropods that fall into their traps. We investigated different behavioral traits of second and third instar larvae selected for similar body masses, while also exploring the behavioral consistency and personalities of the third instar stage. Second instar larvae constructed smaller pits than third instar larvae. The former also responded more slowly to prey and exploited prey less efficiently. Notably, all these instar-based differences disappeared after molting into the third instar stage. In addition, third instar larvae exhibited consistent behavior in their pit size, response times to prey and to less extent in relocation distances. We detected two axes of behavior. The first axis included a correlation between pit size, response time and prey exploitation efficiency, thus reflecting investment in foraging activity. The second axis seemed to represent a trade-off between response time and relocation distance, implying that individuals that responded more slowly to prey, relocated over larger distances. These results point to coordinated behavior reflecting different levels of investment in foraging, while also emphasizing the importance of instar stage, in addition to body mass, when studying the behavior of such organisms characterized by a complex life cycle.
筑坑蚁狮幼虫是机会主义捕食者，它们在疏松的土壤中挖掘圆锥形的坑，并捕食掉入陷阱的小型节肢动物。我们研究了选择体重相似的二龄和三龄幼虫的不同行为特征，同时也探究了三龄阶段的行为一致性和个性。二龄幼虫挖掘的坑比三龄幼虫小。前者对猎物的反应也更慢，捕食猎物的效率也更低。值得注意的是，所有这些基于龄期的差异在蜕皮进入三龄阶段后都消失了。此外，三龄幼虫在坑的大小、对猎物的反应时间以及在较小程度上在重新定位距离方面表现出一致的行为。我们检测到了两个行为轴。第一个轴包括坑的大小、反应时间和猎物利用效率之间的相关性，从而反映了对觅食活动的投入。第二个轴似乎代表了反应时间和重新定位距离之间的权衡，这意味着对猎物反应较慢的个体，重新定位的距离更大。这些结果表明，协调的行为反映了对觅食的不同投入水平，同时也强调了在研究具有复杂生命周期的此类生物的行为时，除了体重外，龄期阶段的重要性。
