Powell Erin C, Painting Christina J, Machado Glauco, Holwell Gregory I
Te Kura Mātauranga Koiora/School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, 3a Symonds St, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
Te Aka Mātuatua School of Science, University of Waikato, Gate 8, Hillcrest Road, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
Behav Ecol. 2023 May 11;34(4):613-620. doi: 10.1093/beheco/arad029. eCollection 2023 Jul-Aug.
Intraspecific weapon polymorphisms that arise via conditional thresholds may be affected by juvenile experience such as predator encounters, yet this idea has rarely been tested. The New Zealand harvestman has three male morphs: majors (alphas and betas) are large-bodied with large chelicerae used in male-male contests, while minors (gammas) are small-bodied with small chelicerae and scramble to find mates. Individuals use leg autotomy to escape predators and there is no regeneration of the missing leg. Here, we tested whether juvenile experience affects adult morph using leg autotomy scars as a proxy of predator encounters. Juvenile males that lost at least one leg (with either locomotory or sensory function) had a 45 times higher probability of becoming a minor morph at adulthood than intact juvenile males. Leg loss during development may affect foraging, locomotion, and/or physiology, potentially linking a juvenile's predator encounters to their final adult morph and future reproductive tactic.
通过条件阈值产生的种内武器多态性可能会受到幼年经历（如遭遇捕食者）的影响，但这一观点很少得到验证。新西兰收获蚁有三种雄性形态：大型个体（α和β）体型较大，螯肢也大，用于雄性之间的争斗，而小型个体（γ）体型较小，螯肢也小，会争抢寻找配偶。个体通过断腿来躲避捕食者，且断腿不会再生。在此，我们以断腿伤疤作为遭遇捕食者的指标，测试幼年经历是否会影响成年形态。至少失去一条腿（具有运动或感觉功能）的幼年雄性成年后成为小型形态的概率比未受伤的幼年雄性高45倍。发育过程中的断腿可能会影响觅食、运动和/或生理机能，这可能将幼年时遭遇捕食者的经历与它们最终的成年形态及未来的繁殖策略联系起来。
