TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of fish cues on mosquito larvae development
AU - Silberbush, Alon
AU - Abramsky, Zvika
AU - Tsurim, Ido
N1 - Funding Information:
We wish to thank William J. Resetarits Jr., Steven Juliano, and Ofer Ovadia for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Pratt Foundation, awarded to Alon Silberbush.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - We investigated the effects of predator-released kairomones on life history traits of larval Culex pipiens (Linnaeus). We compared the development time and survival of sibling larvae, reared in either water conditioned by the presence of Gambusia affinis (Baird and Girard) or fishless control-water. Our results indicate that larvae developing in fish-conditioned water (FCW) pupated faster than larvae in fishless-control water. The effect of FCW on larval survival was evident only in females. Surprisingly, FCW increased female survival. In both development-time and survival, boiling the water eliminated the FCW effect, supporting our hypothesis that fish conditioning is based on kairomones. Accelerated metamorphosis in response to predator released kairomones, evident in our results, is a rarely described phenomenon. Intuitively, when exposed to predator associated signals, aquatic larvae should metamorphose earlier to escape the higher risk of predation. However, theoretical models predict this outcome only under specific conditions. Indeed, longer - rather than shorter - time to metamorphosis is usually observed in response to predation risk. We argue that the response of larval mosquitoes to predation risk is context-dependent. Shortening larval development time may not be an exceptional response, but rather represents a part of a response spectrum that depends on the level of predation risk and resource abundance.
AB - We investigated the effects of predator-released kairomones on life history traits of larval Culex pipiens (Linnaeus). We compared the development time and survival of sibling larvae, reared in either water conditioned by the presence of Gambusia affinis (Baird and Girard) or fishless control-water. Our results indicate that larvae developing in fish-conditioned water (FCW) pupated faster than larvae in fishless-control water. The effect of FCW on larval survival was evident only in females. Surprisingly, FCW increased female survival. In both development-time and survival, boiling the water eliminated the FCW effect, supporting our hypothesis that fish conditioning is based on kairomones. Accelerated metamorphosis in response to predator released kairomones, evident in our results, is a rarely described phenomenon. Intuitively, when exposed to predator associated signals, aquatic larvae should metamorphose earlier to escape the higher risk of predation. However, theoretical models predict this outcome only under specific conditions. Indeed, longer - rather than shorter - time to metamorphosis is usually observed in response to predation risk. We argue that the response of larval mosquitoes to predation risk is context-dependent. Shortening larval development time may not be an exceptional response, but rather represents a part of a response spectrum that depends on the level of predation risk and resource abundance.
KW - Culex pipiens
KW - Life history
KW - Phenotypic plasticity
KW - Predator cues
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84939501211&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.actatropica.2015.08.001
DO - 10.1016/j.actatropica.2015.08.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84939501211
SN - 0001-706X
VL - 150
SP - 196
EP - 199
JO - Acta Tropica
JF - Acta Tropica
ER -
