Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, Prague 2, 128 00, Czech Republic.
Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague-Suchdol, 165 00, Czech Republic.
Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 30;13(1):21131. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-47789-z.
The right choice of an oviposition site is a crucial task for oviparous species without maternal care. In contrast to well investigated biotic factors, e.g., larval food preferences, parasitism, predation, and competition avoiding, abiotic factors affecting oviposition preferences in insects have been rarely investigated in comparative studies. To improve our current understanding of oviposition site selection in Orthoptera, we investigated the influence of substrate temperature and moisture on the oviposition behaviour of 14 temperate grasshopper species. Conspecific groups of adults were kept in arenas with simultaneous temperature and moisture gradients. For each ootheca produced during the experiment (n = 1192) we recorded its depth and local microclimatic conditions. Our results indicate that microclimatic oviposition preferences significantly differ among species, however, correlations between adult habitat preferences and microclimatic oviposition preferences were surprisingly weak. Even oligothermic species preferred substrate temperatures around 30 °C and some xerothermic species preferred higher humidity. The hypothesized tendency to place oothecae closer to the ground within grass tussocks under hot and dry conditions was confirmed. It is possible that species evaluate microclimatic conditions for oviposition in the context of occupied habitat, i.e., in a relative rather than absolute manner.
对于没有亲代照顾的卵生物种来说，选择合适的产卵地点是一项至关重要的任务。与经过充分研究的生物因素（例如幼虫的食物偏好、寄生、捕食和避免竞争）相比，影响昆虫产卵偏好的非生物因素在比较研究中很少被研究。为了提高我们目前对直翅目昆虫产卵地点选择的理解，我们研究了 14 种温带蝗虫物种的基质温度和湿度对其产卵行为的影响。将成虫的同种群体饲养在具有同时存在的温度和湿度梯度的竞技场中。对于实验过程中产生的每个卵囊（n=1192），我们记录了其深度和局部微气候条件。我们的结果表明，微气候产卵偏好在物种间存在显著差异，但成虫栖息地偏好与微气候产卵偏好之间的相关性却出人意料地弱。即使是低温物种也更喜欢接近 30°C 的基质温度，而一些耐旱物种更喜欢较高的湿度。产卵囊更靠近炎热干燥条件下草丛中的地面的假设趋势得到了证实。因此，物种可能会根据所占据的栖息地来评估产卵的微气候条件，也就是说，以相对而非绝对的方式来评估。
