Abstract
Fear of predation has been shown to affect prey fitness and behaviour, however, to date little is known about the underlying genetics of responses to predator-associated risk. In an effort to fill this gap we exposed four naïve clones of green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), maintained on the model crop Brassica oleracea, to different types of cues from aphid lion (Chrysoperla carnea). The respective predation risks, we termed Fear Factors, were either lethal (consumption by predator), or non-lethal (non-consumptive predator-associated cues: plant-tethered predator cadavers and homogenised shoot-sprayed or soil-infused blends of predator remains). Our results show that the non-lethal risk cues differentially impeded prey reproductive success that varied by clone, suggesting genotype-specific response to fear of predation. Furthermore, whether plants were perceived as being safe or risky influenced prey responses as avoidance behaviour in prey depended on clone type. Our findings highlight that intra-specific genetic variation underlies prey responses to consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predation. This allows selection to act on anti-predator responses to fear of predation that may ramify and influence higher trophic levels in model agroecosystems.
Highlights
Fear is an important drive for change in nature
FF1 and surprisingly FF2 treatments were effective in impeding aphid reproductive success in a clone-specific fashion
Using green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) as a model organism, we demonstrate that prey genotype can influence prey response to risk, with a notable decrease in reproductive success and pronounced risk-avoidance behaviour that varied among prey genotypes and across types of exposure to non-lethal predator cues
Summary
Fear is an important drive for change in nature. It comes under different names, frequencies and intensities, and elicits a vast array of responses spanning the morphology, ontogeny, physiology and behaviour of ‘scared’ organisms[1,2,3,4]. Animals face varied levels of uncertainty whilst they selectively examine the nature of risk in their environments, they react to non-lethal risk cues in comparison to fatal ones—as part of their varied adaptive responses to numerous selective pressures acting on them[14, 15] This makes the assessment of risk by prey, in the presence of a threat nearby, complex and contingent on predator-associated cues, and will influence prey propensity to hide, fight or flight[2, 8, 12, 16, 17]. Even though non-consumptive effects of predation have been progressively reported (e.g. refs 3, 9, 11 and 24), little is known on the influence of intra-specific genetic variation in prey on the exhibition of altered response to predator-associated cues. An intra-specific genetic variation basis for anti-predator inducible defences as response to non-lethal predation risk has never been adequately studied before
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