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Feeding patterns of a specialist and a generalist grasshopper: electronic monitoring on their host plants
Author(s) -
BLUST MICHAEL H.,
HOPKINS THEODORE L.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
physiological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-3032
pISSN - 0307-6962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3032.1990.tb00514.x
Subject(s) - biology , grasshopper , generalist and specialist species , host (biology) , lolium perenne , seedling , photoperiodism , acrididae , botany , zoology , ecology , orthoptera , poaceae , habitat
Hypochlora alba (Dodge) is a specialist grasshopper that lives and feeds almost exclusively on Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt., a sage plant mostly avoided as food by generalist or polyphagous grasshoppers, such as Melanoplus sanguinipes (Fabr.). Adaptations to feeding on the pubescent sage foliage containing high levels of allelochemics may involve behavioural as well as physiological specialization. Using an electronic device to monitor feeding activity, we compared feeding periodicity, bout length, bout frequency, and overall time spent feeding by H.alba on sage foliage and by M.sanguinipes on seedling ryegrass ( Lolium perenne L.), the plants on which they had been reared. Although both species fed for about the same amount of time per day (c. 4–5%), they achieved this by two different feeding patterns. H. alba had feeding bouts averaging c. 10 min each, compared to c. 4–5 min for M.sanguinipes. Bout frequency was reversed, with M.sanguinipes feeding about once every hour and H.alba about half as often. Bout length for both species was unaffected by phase of the photoperiod while bout frequency, and consequently the rate of feeding in min/h, was typically reduced by two‐thirds or more during the dark phase. The relationship of grasshopper feeding behaviour to host plant specialization is discussed.