Abstract
The diversity of the diet of grasshoppers (Acrididae, Orthoptera) is related to multiple factors, including the chemoreceptors on the antennae, palps and on the epipharyngeal face of the labrum. In the present study, we sought to understand the nature of the diet of 12 Moroccan acridian species and to try to relate various aspects of their diet to the number of labrum sensilla. If the effect of the labrum size on the number of sensilla is removed, four groups of species are recorded: (i) polyphagous species with a broad diet and numerous sensilla; (ii) polyphagous species with a graminivorous diet and numerous sensilla; (iii) oligophagous species feeding exclusively on Poaceae and with a medium number of sensilla; and (iv) strictly monophagous species feeding on a single plant species and with the smallest number of sensilla. These observations show the close relationship between the diet and the number of labrum sensilla. However, Sphingonotus rubescens, a polyphagous species, is an exception to this trend as it harbours a medium number of sensilla. We propose that the modification in the number of labrum sensilla is a result of a progressive adaptation to a different diet and does not represent its cause.
Highlights
Grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae) are found mainly in open environments (Uvarov 1977) but prefer special microhabitats for shelter or trophic resources that may vary according to ecological factors considered at a larger scale, such as altitude (Boitier 2004)
Within the Oedipodinae, we looked for any connections between the numbers of sensilla, systematic position of the grasshopper species and their diet, using the General Linear Model (GLM) implemented in SYSTAT 12 (SYSTAT 2007)
(1) Polyphagous species with a broad dietary spectrum have a large number of A1-type on their labrum, such as Calliptamus barbarus and Schistocerca gregaria
Summary
Grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae) are found mainly in open environments (Uvarov 1977) but prefer special microhabitats for shelter or trophic resources that may vary according to ecological factors considered at a larger scale, such as altitude (Boitier 2004) They are phytophagous and, depending on the breadth of their diets, can be classified as polyphagous, oligophagous, or monophagous (Kogan 1977; Dethier 1980; Chapman 1982). It has been suggested that the structural and functional diversity of the chemoreceptors play a role in the food choice of grasshoppers (Haskell and Schoonhoven 1969; Sturckow 1970; Altner and Prillinger 1980) These chemoreceptors are located on the oral parts (Jin et al 2006), the type A gustatory sensilla on the labrum (ElGhadraoui et al 2002), and on the antennae (Chen and Kang 2000; Chen et al 2003; Dumas et al 2010). Adaptation; diet; grasshopper; labrum sensilla http://www.ias.ac.in/jbiosci Published online: 26 April 2013
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