The Scent of Danger: the Impact of Predator Chemical Cues on Emergence from Refuge and Willingness to Autotomize Limbs in the House Cricket (Acheta domesticus)

Pears, Jacob B.; Emberts, Zachary; Bateman, Philip W.

doi:10.1007/s10905-018-9690-0

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Consequently, this economic model predicts that the latency to autotomize is positively correlated with the cost of autotomy (given that the benefits are the same; Fig. B), which formalizes multiple hypotheses found throughout the autotomy literature (Wood & Wood, ; Robinson, Abele, & Robinson, ; Arnold, ; Fox et al, ; Guffey, ; Pears, Emberts, & Bateman, ). Note that if an organism is capable of regeneration, then the costs of autotomy include the costs and benefits of regeneration.…”

Section: Economic Theory Of Autotomy: Predicting When An Individual Ssupporting

confidence: 74%

The ecology and evolution of autotomy

2019

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Autotomy, the self-induced loss of a body part, occurs throughout Animalia. A lizard dropping its tail to escape predation is an iconic example, however, autotomy occurs in a diversity of other organisms. Octopuses can release their arms, crabs can drop their claws, and bugs can amputate their legs. The diversity of organisms that can autotomize body parts has led to a wealth of research and several taxonomically focused reviews. These reviews have played a crucial role in advancing our understanding of autotomy within their respective groups. However, because of their taxonomic focus, these reviews are constrained in their ability to enhance our understanding of autotomy. Here, we aim to synthesize research on the ecology and evolution of autotomy throughout Animalia, building a unified framework on which future studies can expand. We found that the ability to drop an appendage has evolved multiple times throughout Animalia and that once autotomy has evolved, selection appears to act on the removable appendage to increase the efficacy and/or efficiency of autotomy. This could explain why some autotomizable body parts are so elaborate (e.g. brightly coloured). We also show that there are multiple benefits, and variable costs, associated with autotomy. Given this variation, we generate an economic theory of autotomy (modified from the economic theory of escape) which makes predictions about when an individual should resort to autotomy. Finally, we show that the loss of an autotomizable appendage can have numerous consequences on population and community dynamics. By taking this broad taxonomic approach, we identified patterns of autotomy that transcend specific lineages and highlight clear directions for future research.

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Section: Economic Theory Of Autotomy: Predicting When An Individual Ssupporting

confidence: 74%

The ecology and evolution of autotomy

2019

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“…We only used individuals that had all their legs (i.e., they had not previously autotomized) because appendage loss has been shown to influence escape decisions (Bateman and Fleming 2006b; Stankowich and Blumstein 2005), including the latency to autotomize a second appendage (Bateman and Fleming 2005; Pears et al. 2018). Autotomy was induced by following a previously established protocol (Emberts et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of autotomy in leaf‐footed bugs

et al. 2020

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Sacrificing body parts is one of many behaviors that animals use to escape predation. This trait, termed autotomy, is classically associated with lizards. However, several other taxa also autotomize, and this trait has independently evolved multiple times throughout Animalia. Despite having multiple origins and being an iconic antipredatory trait, much remains unknown about the evolution of autotomy. Here, we combine morphological, behavioral, and genomic data to investigate the evolution of autotomy within leaf-footed bugs and allies (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coreidae + Alydidae). We found that the ancestor of leaf-footed bugs autotomized and did so slowly; rapid autotomy (<2 min) then arose multiple times. The ancestor likely used slow autotomy to reduce the cost of injury or to escape nonpredatory entrapment but could not use autotomy to escape predation. This result suggests that autotomy to escape predation is a co-opted benefit (i.e., exaptation), revealing one way that sacrificing a limb to escape predation may arise. In addition to identifying the origins of rapid autotomy, we also show that across species variation in the rates of autotomy can be explained by body size, distance from the equator, and enlargement of the autotomizable appendage. K E Y W O R D S : Autotomy, evolutionary ecology, evolutionary origins, latitudinal gradient, phylogenetic comparative methods, predator-prey.

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“…Experimental trials were constrained to 15 minutes. Individuals who did not autotomize within the 15 min timeframe (in our case 2 out of the 115 individuals) were recorded as autotomizing at the 15 min mark, following previously established protocol (Bateman & Fleming 2008;Pears et al, 2018). Each trial was conducted at a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphology of an autotomy fracture plane explains some of the variation in the latency to autotomize

Yoches

2019

UFJUR

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A gecko dropping its tail to escape predation beautifully illustrates the anti-predatory benefits associated with autotomy, i.e., the self-induced loss of a limb. The amount of time it takes an organism to drop its autotomizable limb can dramatically vary from one individual to the next, and the factors that are responsible for this variation remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether the size of the auototomy fracture plane, a morphological character, could explain variation in the latency to autotomize. We found that individuals with larger fracture planes took longer to autotomize when we statistically controlled for an individual’s body size and sex. These results support previous assumptions about the relationship between fracture plane size and latency to autotomize. Namely, large individuals, with relatively small autotomy fracture planes, can drop their autotomizable limbs quickly, which likely improves their success in using this anti-predatory tactic.

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The Scent of Danger: the Impact of Predator Chemical Cues on Emergence from Refuge and Willingness to Autotomize Limbs in the House Cricket (Acheta domesticus)

Cited by 11 publications

References 43 publications

The ecology and evolution of autotomy

The ecology and evolution of autotomy

The evolution of autotomy in leaf‐footed bugs

Morphology of an autotomy fracture plane explains some of the variation in the latency to autotomize

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