Abstract
Organisms are attacked by different natural enemies present in their habitat. While enemies such as parasitoids and predators will kill their hosts/preys when they successfully attack them, enemies such as micropredators will not entirely consume their prey. However, they can still have important consequences on the performance and ecology of the prey, such as reduced growth, increased emigration, disease transmission.In this paper, we investigated the impact of a terrestrial micropredator, the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti, on its unusual invertebrate host, the Egyptian cotton leaf worm, Spodoptera littoralis. Larvae developing in presence of mosquitoes showed a slower development and reached a smaller pupal weight when compared to a control without mosquitoes, apparently because of a reduced feeding time for larvae. In addition, larvae tended to leave the plant in presence of mosquitoes.These results suggest that mosquitoes act as micropredators and affects lepidopteran larvae behaviour and development. Ecological impacts such as higher risks of food depletion and longer exposure to natural enemies are likely to be costly consequences. The importance of this phenomenon in nature – the possible function as last resort when vertebrates are unavailable – and the evolutionary aspects are discussed.
Highlights
Trophic strategies are separated into different categories based on the number of victims, distinguishing between parasites and predators, and the victim’s fitness, dividing the predators into micropredators and predators [1]
We investigated the impact of a micropredator in a terrestrial system, the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae), on the performance and behaviour of an unusual invertebrate prey, the Egyptian cotton leaf worm Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
The larval behaviour probably explains the low mosquito feeding success rate, as it depends on the micropredator not being detected by its prey [20]
Summary
Trophic strategies are separated into different categories based on the number of victims, distinguishing between parasites and predators, and the victim’s fitness, dividing the predators into micropredators and predators [1]. Micropredators are natural enemies attacking more than one victim in their life, but not necessarily killing it, such as leeches, lampreys or ticks, and are sometimes considered as mobile temporary parasites [1,2,3]. Most studies on micropredators concern vertebrate prey in aquatic systems, such as isopods or dinoflagellates feeding on fish [3,4,5], or terrestrial systems including mosquitoes, ticks and flees and their vertebrate prey [6,7]. Micropredators can reduce their prey’s growth rate [7], modify their competitive ability [8], and alter swimming behaviour of fish [3]
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