Affiliation:
1. Université de Tours, IRBI UMR CNRS 6035, Parc Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France
Abstract
SUMMARY
Even though variation in morphology is known to translate into variation in performance, studies looking at structural variability of a sensor to predict its consequences on the performance of animals are exceedingly rare. We investigated the morphological variability of air-flow-sensing receptors in wild populations of wood crickets (Nemobius sylvestris) sampled in a wide variety of habitats differing in latitude, litter structure, vegetation and predator communities. These hair receptors act as predator sensors. The observed levels of hair morphological variation were then incorporated into a biomechanical model of the hair canopy response to air flow to predict their influence on cricket predator perception. Cricket populations differ from each other, often strongly so, in the total number of hairs and in the number of hairs longer than 1 mm, which are the hairs most sensitive for the perception of approaching predators. The hair canopy response, the output of the biomechanical model, sums up over the entire canopy the angles of deflection at which a neurophysiological response is triggered and represents the sensitivity of the cercal system. It is 35% higher in the most sensitive population, compared with the least sensitive population. These large differences in perception sensitivity for a given predator signal translate into larger distances at which predators could be perceived. Thus, differences in morphology at the sensor level seem to be translated both at the perception level and subsequently at the performance level of crickets.
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Subject
Insect Science,Molecular Biology,Animal Science and Zoology,Aquatic Science,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
43 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献