Population Ecology Lab, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Umultowska 89, 61-614, Poznań, Poland.
Department of Applied Entomology, Faculty of Horticulture, Biotechnology and Landscape Architecture, Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, Warsaw, 02-776, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 20;7(1):3890. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-04372-7.
Passively dispersing organisms should optimise the time and direction of dispersal by employing behaviours that increase their probability of being successfully transported by dispersal agents. We rigorously tested whether two agriculturally important passively-dispersing eriophyoid species, wheat curl mite (WCM) and cereal rust mite (CRM), display behaviours indicating their readiness to depart from current host plants in the presence of potential dispersal cues: wind, an insect vector and presence of a fresh plant. Contrary to our expectations, we found that both species decreased their general activity in the presence of wind. When exposed to wind, WCM (but not CRM) significantly increased behaviour that has previously been considered to facilitate dispersal (in this case, standing vertically). Our study provides the first sound test of the function of what have been interpreted as dispersal-related behaviours of eriophyid mites. The low proportion of WCM exhibiting dispersal behaviour suggests there may be predisposed dispersers and residents in the population. Moreover, we found that WCM was generally more active than CRM, which is likely a contributing factor to its high invasive potential.
被动扩散的生物体应该通过采取增加被扩散剂成功运输的概率的行为来优化扩散的时间和方向。我们严格测试了两种农业上重要的被动扩散的粉虱，小麦卷叶螨（WCM）和谷物锈螨（CRM），是否表现出在存在潜在扩散线索时准备离开当前宿主植物的行为迹象：风，昆虫媒介和新鲜植物的存在。与我们的预期相反，我们发现两种物种在有风的情况下活动减少。当暴露于风中时，WCM（但不是 CRM）显著增加了先前被认为有助于扩散的行为（在这种情况下，垂直站立）。我们的研究首次对被解释为粉虱螨类扩散相关行为的功能进行了可靠的测试。表现出扩散行为的 WCM 比例较低，这表明种群中可能存在预先分配的扩散者和居民。此外，我们发现 WCM 通常比 CRM 更活跃，这可能是其高入侵潜力的一个因素。
