10.5061/DRYAD.B8P41T8
Morimoto, Juliano
Macquarie University
Nguyen, Binh
Macquarie University
Tarahi Tabrizi, Shabnam
Macquarie University
Ponton, Fleur
Macquarie University
Taylor, Phillip
Macquarie University
Data from: Social and nutritional factors shape larval aggregation,
foraging, and body mass in a polyphagous fly
Dryad
dataset
2018
Larvae
behavioural ecology
Bactrocera tryoni
2018-10-23T18:10:06Z
2018-10-23T18:10:06Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32930-0
19077 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The majority of insect species have a clearly defined larval stage during
development. Larval nutrition is crucial for individuals’ growth and
development, and larval foraging success often depends on both resource
availability and competition for those resources. To date, however, little
is known about how these factors interact to shape larval development and
behaviour. Here we manipulated the density of larvae of the polyphagous
fruit fly pest Bactrocera tryoni (‘Queensland fruit fly’), and the diet
concentration of patches in a foraging arena to address this gap. Using
advanced statistical methods of machine learning and linear regression
models, we showed that high larval density results in overall high larval
aggregation across all diets except in extreme diet dilutions. Larval
aggregation was positively associated with larval body mass across all
diet concentrations except in extreme diet dilutions where this
relationship was reversed. Over time, larvae in low-density arenas also
tended to aggregate while those in high-density arenas tended to disperse,
an effect that was observed for all diet concentrations. Furthermore,
larvae in high-density arenas displayed significant avoidance of low
concentration diets – a behaviour that was not observed amongst larvae in
low-density arenas. Thus, aggregation can help, rather than hinder, larval
growth in high-density environments, and larvae may be better able to
explore available nutrition when at high-density than when at low-density.
ForagingChoice_different_dietsData for the foraging experiment where
larvae had to choose between different
diets.ForagingChoice_aggregationData for the foraging experiment to
evaluate aggregation. Note that to upload this file in R, please use
read.table with sep argument = "\t".Larval_body_massData for
larval body mass.
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