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The cost of autotomy caused by the parasitoid fly Blaesoxipha japonensis (Diptera: Sarcophagidae): an interspecific comparison between two sympatric grasshopper host species
Author(s) -
Miura Kazumi,
Ohsaki Naota
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/s11284-014-1202-x
Subject(s) - biology , autotomy , grasshopper , sympatric speciation , parasitoid , ecology , interspecific competition , predation , host (biology) , zoology
In insects, while much is known about how autotomy, the loss of a host's hind leg(s), affects locomotion, mating and escape from predators, little is known about the effects of such loss on mortality caused by a parasitoid fly in natural habitat. We tested to see if host mortality caused by the parasitoid fly, Blaesoxipha japonensis , was related to the presence or absence of a hind leg(s) in two closely related, sympatric grasshopper species, Parapodisma tanbaensis and P. subastris . After capturing adult grasshoppers of both species in the same three locations simultaneously for 2 years, we assessed whether B . japonensis caused the death of a host by rearing these captured grasshoppers until they died. The results showed that autotomy significantly affected the mortality caused by B . japonensis in P . subastris adults, but not in P. tanbaensis adults. This suggests that the increased mortality caused by parasitoids can be one of the costs of autotomy in P . subastris in its natural habitat, and that the mortality effect caused by B . japonensis in autotomized adults may differ based on behavioral, physiological, and/or ecological factors that differ between these two sympatric Parapodisma species.