Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 2;16(2):e0246178. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246178. eCollection 2021.
During range expansion, invasive species can experience new thermal regimes. Differences between the thermal performance of local and invasive species can alter species interactions, including predator-prey interactions. The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a known vector of several viral diseases of public health importance. It has successfully invaded many regions across the globe and currently threatens to invade regions of the UK where conditions would support seasonal activity. We assessed the functional response and predation efficiency (percentage of prey consumed) of the cyclopoid copepods Macrocyclops albidus and Megacyclops viridis from South East England, UK against newly-hatched French Ae. albopictus larvae across a relevant temperature range (15, 20, and 25°C). Predator-absent controls were included in all experiments to account for background prey mortality. We found that both M. albidus and M. viridis display type II functional response curves, and that both would therefore be suitable biocontrol agents in the event of an Ae. albopictus invasion in the UK. No significant effect of temperature on the predation interaction was detected by either type of analysis. However, the predation efficiency analysis did show differences due to predator species. The results suggest that M. viridis would be a superior predator against invasive Ae. albopictus larvae due to the larger size of this copepod species, relative to M. albidus. Our work highlights the importance of size relationships in predicting interactions between invading prey and local predators.
在物种分布范围扩张期间，入侵物种可能会经历新的热环境。本地物种和入侵物种的热性能差异会改变物种间的相互作用，包括捕食者-猎物相互作用。亚洲虎蚊（Aedes albopictus）是几种具有公共卫生重要性的病毒病的已知载体。它已成功入侵了全球许多地区，目前正威胁着要入侵英国的一些地区，这些地区的条件将支持其季节性活动。我们评估了来自英国东南部的环裂藻（Macrocyclops albidus）和大沼（Megacyclops viridis）两种桡足类对新孵化的法国白纹伊蚊（Aedes albopictus）幼虫的功能反应和捕食效率（被捕食的猎物百分比），跨越了一个相关的温度范围（15、20 和 25°C）。在所有实验中都包括了没有捕食者的对照，以说明背景猎物死亡率。我们发现，M. albidus 和 M. viridis 都表现出 II 型功能反应曲线，因此，如果白纹伊蚊在英国入侵，它们都将是合适的生物防治剂。两种分析都没有发现温度对捕食相互作用有显著影响。然而，捕食效率分析确实显示了由于捕食者物种的不同而产生的差异。研究结果表明，由于该桡足类物种相对较大，M. viridis 将是入侵的白纹伊蚊幼虫的更好捕食者。我们的工作强调了在预测入侵猎物和本地捕食者之间的相互作用时，大小关系的重要性。
