Behavior and fitness are important ecological traits frequently measured in insect bioassays.A common method to measure them in soft-bodied herbivorous insects involves confining individuals to plant leaves using clip...Behavior and fitness are important ecological traits frequently measured in insect bioassays.A common method to measure them in soft-bodied herbivorous insects involves confining individuals to plant leaves using clip cages.Although studies have pre-viously highlighted the negative effects of clip cages on leaf physiology,little is known about the impact that using this confinement method has on insect fitness.The responses of different aphid genotypes/clones to different containment methods have not previously been investigated.Here we measured key fitness traits(intrinsic rate of natural increase,mean relative growth rate,time to reach reproductive adulthood and population doubling time)in the potato aphid,Macrosiphum euphorbiae Thomas(Hemiptera:Aphididae),when confined to plants using two methods:(1)clip cages to confine aphids to individual strawberry leaves and(2)a mesh bag to confine aphids to whole strawberry plants.Our study identified a strong negative impact on all the measured aphid fitness traits when using clip cages instead of mesh bags.We also identified genotype-specific differences in response to confinement method,where clip cage confinement differentially affected the fitness of a given aphid genotype compared to the same genotype on whole plants.These results suggest that clip cage use should be carefully considered when experiments seek to quantify insect fitness and that whole plants should be used wherever possible.Given the prevalence of clip cage use in insect bioassays,our results highlight the need for cau-tion when interpreting the existing literature as confinement method significantly impacts aphid fitness depending on their genotype.展开更多
基金The authors would like to thank the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Fruit Crop Science CTP for funding this projectthe Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services(RESAS)Division of the Scottish Government through the Strategic Research Programme(2022-2027)+2 种基金the Underpinning National Capacity programme(Service 8.2 Maintenance of pest collections)for supporting the project through the James Hutton InstituteGaynor Malloch at the James Hutton Institute and Danielle Henderson-Holdings at Harper Adams University for their support with molecular workDr Edwin Harris at Harper Adams University for his support with data analysis.
文摘Behavior and fitness are important ecological traits frequently measured in insect bioassays.A common method to measure them in soft-bodied herbivorous insects involves confining individuals to plant leaves using clip cages.Although studies have pre-viously highlighted the negative effects of clip cages on leaf physiology,little is known about the impact that using this confinement method has on insect fitness.The responses of different aphid genotypes/clones to different containment methods have not previously been investigated.Here we measured key fitness traits(intrinsic rate of natural increase,mean relative growth rate,time to reach reproductive adulthood and population doubling time)in the potato aphid,Macrosiphum euphorbiae Thomas(Hemiptera:Aphididae),when confined to plants using two methods:(1)clip cages to confine aphids to individual strawberry leaves and(2)a mesh bag to confine aphids to whole strawberry plants.Our study identified a strong negative impact on all the measured aphid fitness traits when using clip cages instead of mesh bags.We also identified genotype-specific differences in response to confinement method,where clip cage confinement differentially affected the fitness of a given aphid genotype compared to the same genotype on whole plants.These results suggest that clip cage use should be carefully considered when experiments seek to quantify insect fitness and that whole plants should be used wherever possible.Given the prevalence of clip cage use in insect bioassays,our results highlight the need for cau-tion when interpreting the existing literature as confinement method significantly impacts aphid fitness depending on their genotype.
