Are invasive fire ants kept in check by native aerial insectivores?

Helms, Jackson A.; Godfrey, Aaron P.; Ames, Tayna; Bridge, Eli S.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2016.0059

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Among aerially mating ants, for example, body size accounted for nearly 90% of variation in flight altitude. Mirroring their dominance on land, winged sexuals of ants and other social insects also play a prominent role in aerial food webs as abundant and nutritious prey 30 . The role of flight in ant biology is often overlooked because most individual ants are wingless workers that live in earthbound colonies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ant sexuals are relatively defenseless, and the bodies of queens contain large reserves (up to 70% body weight) of fats, storage proteins, and glycogen that help them found new colonies 24 25 . Ant sexuals are therefore an abundant and nutritious target for predators 26 27 28 29 30 , and their mating swarms may provide substantial nutrient inputs into aerial food webs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Predator foraging altitudes reveal the structure of aerial insect communities

Helms

Godfrey

Ames

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The atmosphere is populated by a diverse array of dispersing insects and their predators. We studied aerial insect communities by tracking the foraging altitudes of an avian insectivore, the Purple Martin (Progne subis). By attaching altitude loggers to nesting Purple Martins and collecting prey delivered to their nestlings, we determined the flight altitudes of ants and other insects. We then tested hypotheses relating ant body size and reproductive ecology to flight altitude. Purple Martins flew up to 1,889 meters above ground, and nestling provisioning trips ranged up to 922 meters. Insect communities were structured by body size such that species of all sizes flew near the ground but only light insects flew to the highest altitudes. Ant maximum flight altitudes decreased by 60% from the lightest to the heaviest species. Winged sexuals of social insects (ants, honey bees, and termites) dominated the Purple Martin diet, making up 88% of prey individuals and 45% of prey biomass. By transferring energy from terrestrial to aerial food webs, mating swarms of social insects play a substantial role in aerial ecosystems. Although we focus on Purple Martins and ants, our combined logger and diet method could be applied to a range of aerial organisms.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Predator foraging altitudes reveal the structure of aerial insect communities

Helms

Godfrey

Ames

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In volant birds, flight performance contributes to many ecologically relevant functions, including mate displays (Clark, ; Clark & Feo, ; Usherwood, ), prey capture (Helms, Godfrey, Ames, & Bridge, ; Warrick, Hedrick, Biewener, Crandell, & Tobalske, ), predator escapes (Kullberg, Fransson, & Jakobsson, ; Kullberg, Jakobsson, & Fransson, ; van den Hout, Mathot, Maas, & Piersma, ), and arrival time to migration grounds (Bowlin & Winkler, ; Matyjasiak, ). Thus, flight performance can potentially affect both reproductive success (via mate choice; reviewed in Barske, Schlinger, Wikelski, & Fusani, ; Byers, Hebets, & Podos, ) and survival (Møller, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flight performance in the altricial zebra finch: Developmental effects and reproductive consequences

Crino

Oorschot

Crandell

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The environmental conditions animals experience during development can have sustained effects on morphology, physiology, and behavior. Exposure to elevated levels of stress hormones (glucocorticoids, GCs) during development is one such condition that can have long‐term effects on animal phenotype. Many of the phenotypic effects of GC exposure during development (developmental stress) appear negative. However, there is increasing evidence that developmental stress can induce adaptive phenotypic changes. This hypothesis can be tested by examining the effect of developmental stress on fitness‐related traits. In birds, flight performance is an ideal metric to assess the fitness consequences of developmental stress. As fledglings, mastering takeoff is crucial to avoid bodily damage and escape predation. As adults, takeoff can contribute to mating and foraging success as well as escape and, thus, can affect both reproductive success and survival. We examined the effects of developmental stress on flight performance across life‐history stages in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Specifically, we examined the effects of oral administration of corticosterone (CORT, the dominant avian glucocorticoid) during development on ground‐reaction forces and velocity during takeoff. Additionally, we tested for associations between flight performance and reproductive success in adult male zebra finches. Developmental stress had no effect on flight performance at all ages. In contrast, brood size (an unmanipulated variable) had sustained, negative effects on takeoff performance across life‐history stages with birds from small broods performing better than birds from large broods. Flight performance at 100 days posthatching predicted future reproductive success in males; the best fliers had significantly higher reproductive success. Our results demonstrate that some environmental factors experienced during development (e.g. clutch size) have stronger, more sustained effects than others (e.g. GC exposure). Additionally, our data provide the first link between flight performance and a direct measure of reproductive success.

show abstract

“…; Daly ; Wing ; Helms et al. ) could select for virginity as an alternative reproductive strategy for haplodiploid females (Godfray and Hardy ; Godfray and Cook ; Tilquin ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If selection would favor high frequency of virgin reproduction, this could lead to strongly split sex ratios, promoting the evolution of female helping. Indeed, it has been suggested that risks associated with mating (e.g., exposure to predators or pathogens; Whitcomb et al 1973;Daly 1978;Wing 1988;Helms et al 2016) could select for virginity as an alternative reproductive strategy for haplodiploid females (Godfray and Hardy 1993;Godfray and Cook 1997;Tilquin 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolutionary dynamics of adaptive virginity, sex-allocation, and altruistic helping in haplodiploid animals

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In haplodiploids, females can produce sons from unfertilized eggs without mating. However, virgin reproduction is usually considered to be a result of a failure to mate, rather than an adaptation. Here, we build an analytical model for evolution of virgin reproduction, sex-allocation, and altruistic female helping in haplodiploid taxa. We show that when mating is costly (e.g., when mating increases predation risk), virginity can evolve as an adaptive female reproductive strategy. Furthermore, adaptive virginity results in strongly divergent sex-ratios in mated and virgin queen nests ("split sex ratios"), which promotes the evolution of altruistic helping by daughters in mated queen nests. However, when helpers evolve to be efficient and increase nest production significantly, virgin reproduction is selected against. Our results suggest that adaptive virginity could have been an important stepping stone on the pathway to eusociality in haplodiploids. We further show that virginity can be an adaptive reproductive strategy also in primitively social haplodiploids if workers bias the sex ratio toward females. By remaining virgin, queens are free to produce sons, the more valuable sex in a female-biased population. Our work brings a new dimension to the studies linking reproductive strategies with social evolution. K E Y W O R D S :Alternative reproduction strategies, mating behavior, reproductive altruism, split sex ratios, virgin reproduction.

show abstract

Are invasive fire ants kept in check by native aerial insectivores?

Cited by 22 publications

References 16 publications

Predator foraging altitudes reveal the structure of aerial insect communities

Predator foraging altitudes reveal the structure of aerial insect communities

Flight performance in the altricial zebra finch: Developmental effects and reproductive consequences

The evolutionary dynamics of adaptive virginity, sex-allocation, and altruistic helping in haplodiploid animals

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About