| Autor: |
Field, Scott A., Calbert, Greg |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Behavioral Ecology; Mar/Apr1999, Vol. 10 Issue 2, p122, 0p |
| Abstrakt: |
Although aggressive conflicts over hosts occur among females in manyspecies of insect parasitoids, few studies have examined the mechanisms by which these contests are resolved. In Trissolcus basalis, a parasitoid of pentatomid bug egg masses, females co-exploiting an egg mass (patch) encounter one another repeatedly and fight for possessionof the patch. We investigated the resolution of pairwise contest by experimentally varying the release time of females and the size of the patch. Logistic regression showed that the female arriving first onthe patch was more likely to win both the first agonistic encounter and to retain overall possession of the patch. This advantage to the first female suggests a resource-correlated asymmetry in favor of thefirst female, due to her having invested more offspring in the patch. Although escalations were more common when the asymmetry in arrivaltimes was small, the majority of encounters within all contests werenevertheless resolved without escalated fighting, with the resident attacking and the intruder backing down. Thus contest resolution basically followed a 'bourgeois' rule. Residents tolerated intruders morefrequently when the patch size was larger and the second female was released later, illustrating the trade-off faced by residents betweendefending the patch and continuing to exploit it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
| Externí odkaz: |
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