Abstract
Animals can gain significant advantages from abilities to detect cues from predators, assess risks, and respond adaptively to reduce the likelihood of injurious interactions. In contrast, predator cue-induced changes in behaviour may interfere with fitness-associated activities such as exploration, foraging and reproduction. Despite the ecological importance of predator-prey interactions in insects, remarkably little is known about the abilities of insects to detect and respond to olfactory cues from predators, or the potential costs of such responses. We here demonstrate that a tephritid fruit fly, the Queensland fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni, is able to detect and respond differentially to volatile olfactory cues from four potential predators (three spiders and an ant) that vary in prevalence and diurnal activity. Male and female flies increased or decreased motility (velocity, active time, distance moved), or exhibited no change in motility, depending on which predator volatiles they encountered. Further, flies significantly reduced foraging, oviposition and mating propensity in the presence of volatiles from any of the predators. This study is the first report of predator-specific responses to olfactory cues in a tephritid fruit fly, and highlights that such anti-predator responses can impose costs on general activity and reproductive behaviour.
Highlights
Animals can gain significant advantages from abilities to detect cues from predators, assess risks, and respond adaptively to reduce the likelihood of injurious interactions
Number of visits to a food zone by female and male flies varied significantly in the presence of olfactory cues from predators, non-predators, and filtered air controls (Females χ2 = 111.3, df = 29, P < 0.0001; Males χ2 = 113.5, df = 29, P < 0.0001; Fig. 3A,B). Both female and male flies made fewer visits to the food zone when exposed to olfactory cues from the predators H. minitabunda, O. quadratarius, C. robusta, and O. smaragdina compared to flies exposed only to filtered air
Reflecting results for number of visits to the food zone, both female and male flies spent less time in the food zone when exposed to olfactory cues from H. minitabunda, O. quadratarius, C. robusta, and O. smaragdina compared to flies exposed only to filtered air
Summary
Animals can gain significant advantages from abilities to detect cues from predators, assess risks, and respond adaptively to reduce the likelihood of injurious interactions. Prey species may detect olfactory cues from predators, and use this information to modify their behaviour to reduce risks of attack[4,5,6]. Foraging is vital for survival and reproduction, but animals may be confronted with the challenge of acquiring food under increased risk of predation Such conflicts in fitness currencies result in a trade-off to which prey may respond to predator cues by reducing foraging activities[19,20]. We assess the ability of predator-naïve Queensland fruit flies, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Tephritidae), to detect and respond to olfactory cues from four taxonomically and ecologically diverse cursorial predators and highlight the impact of their responses on fitness-related behaviours, including motility, feeding, and oviposition. The present study is an important step in advancing understanding of predator-prey interactions in tephritid flies, as well as in insects more broadly
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