Casas Jerome, Driessen Gerard, Mandon Nicole, Wielaard Sebastiaan, Desouhant Emmanuel, Van Alphen Jacques, Lapchin Laurent, Rivero Ana, Christides Jean Philippe, Bernstein Carlos
University of Tours, Institut de Recherches sur la Biologie de l'Insecte, IRBI, UMR CNRS 6035, Avenue Monge, F-37200 Tours, France.
Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, University of Leiden, PO Box 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands.
J Anim Ecol. 2003 Jul;72(4):691-697. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00740.x.
Although parasitoids are used widely as a biological models for understanding the evolution of animal behaviour, most studies have been constrained to the laboratory. The dearth of field studies has been compounded by the almost complete ignorance of the physiological parameters involved in foraging and dispersal, in particular of the energetic constraints imposed by resource limitation. We estimated the dynamics of carbohydrates and lipids reserves of Venturia canescens (Gravenhorst) females by releasing individuals of known nutritional status in a natural environment and recapturing them using host-containing traps. The recapture rate was around 30%. These results were compared with the reserves of caged animals kept under different experimental conditions (freshly emerged, starved to death, fed ad libitum and partially starved). Wild animals were also sampled in order to estimate the resource levels of the local population. The results show that: (i) wasps are able to maintain a nearly constant level of energy over an extended foraging period; (ii) V. canescens takes sugars in the field; and (iii) the lipid reserves accumulated during the larval life may be limiting as lipogenesis does not take place in adults even under conditions of high sugar availability. These results demonstrate that wasps can forage for hosts and food and disperse in this habitat for hours and days without running into a severe risk of energy limitation.
尽管寄生蜂被广泛用作理解动物行为进化的生物学模型，但大多数研究都局限于实验室。由于对觅食和扩散过程中涉及的生理参数几乎完全无知，尤其是对资源限制所带来的能量限制，野外研究的匮乏更加严重。我们通过在自然环境中释放已知营养状况的个体，并使用装有寄主的诱捕器重新捕获它们，来估计甘蓝夜蛾赤眼蜂（Gravenhorst）雌蜂碳水化合物和脂质储备的动态变化。重新捕获率约为30%。将这些结果与在不同实验条件下（刚羽化、饥饿致死、自由采食和部分饥饿）饲养的笼养动物的储备进行了比较。还对野生动物进行了采样，以估计当地种群的资源水平。结果表明：（i）黄蜂能够在较长的觅食期内维持几乎恒定的能量水平；（ii）甘蓝夜蛾赤眼蜂在野外摄取糖分；（iii）即使在高糖供应的条件下，成虫也不会发生脂肪生成，幼虫期积累的脂质储备可能会受到限制。这些结果表明，黄蜂能够在这个栖息地觅食寄主和食物并扩散数小时甚至数天，而不会面临严重的能量限制风险。
