Food load manipulation ability shapes flight morphology in females of central-place foraging Hymenoptera

Polidori, Carlo; Crottini, Angelica; Venezia, Lidia Della; Selfa, Jesús; Saino, Nicola; Rubolini, Diego

doi:10.1186/1742-9994-10-36

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Petiole elongation could also allow insects to transport large preys without compromising freedom of movement of the abdomen (Budrys and Budrienė 2012;Polidori et al 2013). However, the diversity of morphologies and life traits of these insects suggests that petiole elongation may have another, more general function in insect flight.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, wings are not the only structure involved in flight: the thorax contains the muscles that drive wing movement, providing both power and control of lifts (Matsuda 1970;Walker et al 2014), and the abdomen is thought to play an important role in flight stability (Götz et al 1970;Dyhr et al 2013). Several studies explored the effect of general morphology on flight, such as the overall body size or the proportion of flight muscles (Outomuro et al 2011;Garcia and Sarmiento 2012;Polidori et al 2013), but no study has explored how the morphology of these different structures co-varies, which may provide insight into their influence on flight performance. Using morphological integration as a framework, this study examines the relationship between wings and body shape in vespid wasps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wasp Waist and Flight: Convergent Evolution in Wasps Reveals a Link between Wings and Body Shapes

Perrard¹

2020

The American Naturalist

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Insect flight is made possible by different morphological structures: wings produce the lift, the thorax drives the wings' movements and the abdomen serves as a secondary control device. As such, the covariation of these structures could reflect functional constraints related to flight performances. This study examines evolutionary convergences in wasp body shapes to provide the first evidence for morphological integration among insect wings, thorax and abdomen. Shapes of the fore-and hindwings, thorax and petiole (connecting abdomen and thorax) of 22 Vespidae species were analyzed using computerized tomography and geometric morphometrics. Results show a clear relationship between petiole and wings or thorax shapes, but not between wings and thorax. Wasps with elongated bodies have pointed wings, both features thought to improve flight maneuverability. In contrast, stouter species have rounded wings, which may allow for higher flight speeds. These integration patterns suggest that multiple selective regimes on flight performance, some of them biased towards maneuverability or maximal speed, drove the morphological diversity in Vespidae. The results also suggest that wing shapes evolved under constraints related to the body type they have to lift. The abdomen morphology is thus another factor to take into account to understand the flight performance of insects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wasp Waist and Flight: Convergent Evolution in Wasps Reveals a Link between Wings and Body Shapes

Perrard¹

2020

The American Naturalist

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“…It is known that wing venation might affect bee flight in some way as wing flexibility results in different aerodynamic forces and affects the ability to take off (Mountcastle & Combes, ). Nevertheless, at this time, we cannot assert whether this is due to the common evolutionary history between P. nigriceps and P. wittmanni or, alternatively, if other ecological features, such as the ability to load food or nest material (for details see Polidori et al ., ), are applying any selective pressure to FW shapes of Plebeia species nesting in rocks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geometric morphometrics of the forewing shape and size discriminate Plebeia species (Hymenoptera: Apidae) nesting in different substrates

Santos

Marques

et al. 2019

Systematic Entomology

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Historically, studies evaluating morphological diversity in stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae: Meliponini) by geometric morphometrics have been used to successfully discriminate taxa and/or populations. Moreover, the use of geometric morphometrics to evaluate phylogenetic morphological variation among stingless bee species has received less attention. Here, we used geometric morphometrics to assess taxonomic discrimination and putative phylogenetic signals for six diapausing stingless bee species (Plebeia) occurring in southern Brazil. In all, 12 landmarks were captured from forewings of P. droryana, P. saiqui, P. emerina, P. remota, P. nigriceps and P. wittmanni. Our data show that the centroid size of the forewings reliably discriminated, for example, between P. droryana and P. emerina from P. saiqui. Moreover, this trait does not have a significant phylogenetic signal. In turn, we found that the overall accuracy in discriminating between the six Plebeia species according to forewing shape was 84%, while the confusion matrix achieved 71%. Interestingly, our discriminant analysis separated Plebeia species nesting in tree cavities from those nesting under granitic rocks. The latter group has second cubital (landmarks = 5, 6, 7), first medial (landmarks = 2, 3, 8) and first submarginal cells (landmarks = 3, 4, 9, 10) that are larger than those of species nesting in trees. The forewing shape showed a strong phylogenetic signal, therefore suggesting that its variation may be due to an evolutionary history shared between Plebeia species studied here rather than to environmental features. This work sheds light on the value of forewing size and shape attributes in discriminating Plebeia species within same genus. We suggest that landmarks separating different taxonomic groups could be incorporated into dichotomous keys to help in identifying clades of complex resolution.

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“…In our sample of flies processed to obtain the flight-related parameters, we calculated the mean WL , FMR and body mass for each of the species; then we transformed WL into their natural logarithm to achieve normality, and conducted linear regressions to assess the potential linear relationships between the species’ body mass and FMR , between their body mass and WL , and between their FMR and WL . Because thorax mass and wing area can potentially scale allometrically with body mass, as it has previously been observed, in particular for WL (e.g, [ 38 , 46 , 65 , 66 ]), we tested for allometric relationships with the Major Axis Regression method, which accounts for the variation in both variables, not only in the independent variable (body mass). This method calculates the slope of the log-log regressions, together with the 2.5% and 97.5% confidence intervals.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falling Victim to Wasps in the Air: A Fate Driven by Prey Flight Morphology?

et al. 2016

Self Cite

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In prey-predator systems where the interacting individuals are both fliers, the flight performance of both participants heavily influences the probability of success of the predator (the prey is captured) and of the prey (the predator is avoided). While the flight morphology (an estimate of flight performance) of predatory wasps has rarely been addressed as a factor that may contribute to explain prey use, how the flight morphology of potential prey influences the output of predator-prey encounters has not been studied. Here, we hypothesized that flight morphology associated with flight ability (flight muscle mass to body mass ratio (FMR) and body mass to wing area ratio (wing loading, WL)) of Diptera affect their probability of being captured by specialized Diptera-hunting wasps (Bembix merceti and B. zonata), predicting a better manoeuvrability and acceleration capacity achieved by higher FMR and lower WL, and flight speed achieved by higher WL. In addition, wasp species with better flight morphology should be less limited by an advantageous Diptera flight morphology. Overall, the abundance of dipterans in the environment explained an important part of the observed variance in prey capture rate. However, it was not the only factor shaping prey capture. First, higher prey abundance was associated with greater capture rate for one species (B. merceti), although not for the other one. Second, the interaction observed between the environmental dipteran availability and dipteran WL for B. zonata suggests that greater dipteran WL (this probably meaning high cruising speed) decreased the probability of being captured, as long as fly abundance was high in the environment. Third, greater dipteran FMR (which likely means high manoeuvrability and acceleration capacity) helped to reduce predation by B. merceti if, again, dipterans were abundant in the environment. Wasp WL only varied with body mass but not between species, thereby hardly accounting for inter-specific differences in the wasps’ predatory patterns. However, the greater FMR of B. zonata, which implies better flight performance and greater load-lifting capacity, may explain why the capture rate in the two wasp species is affected by different factor interactions. In conclusion, although prey availability remains the primary factor shaping prey use, prey flight morphology seems to gain an additional role under conditions of abundant prey, when wasps can avoid flies with better flight ability.

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Food load manipulation ability shapes flight morphology in females of central-place foraging Hymenoptera

Cited by 13 publications

References 54 publications

Wasp Waist and Flight: Convergent Evolution in Wasps Reveals a Link between Wings and Body Shapes

Wasp Waist and Flight: Convergent Evolution in Wasps Reveals a Link between Wings and Body Shapes

Geometric morphometrics of the forewing shape and size discriminate Plebeia species (Hymenoptera: Apidae) nesting in different substrates

Falling Victim to Wasps in the Air: A Fate Driven by Prey Flight Morphology?

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