查看更多>>摘要：Providing nutritional gifts to females during mating is common in several insect species. Although nuptial gifts are well known in the bushcrickets, the specific way in which females use spermatophore material is unclear. In previous research, we found that a portion of the spermatophore is used for body homeostasis in the hours following mating. Other spermatophore materials can later be found in the muscles of females. Here, we examined whether consuming a nuptial gift alters subsequent feeding patterns in females of the herbivorous bushcricket Poecilimon ampliatus. We tested the prediction that nuptial feeding in bushcricket females replaces their normal plant diet. Our alternative hypothesis was that females with and without spermatophore feeding would eat the same amount of plant food. Our results were contradictory: in the first 12 h after eating a spermatophore, females consumed less plant material. In the second 12 h period, they consumed more plant material. Over the entire 4.5-day experiment, spermatophore feeding had no influence on leaf consumption. Possible explanations for these discrepancies are that females prefer spermatophores to vegetation, and thus consume spermatophores during the first 12 h period. But spermatophore nutrients may be rapidly digested and assimilated, leaving female guts empty and leading to increased plant feeding during the second 12 h period. Hence, our results suggest that in bushcrickets, spermatophores replace the normal female diet in the short term, but supplement it in the long term. (C) 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Chow, Pizza Ka YeeLea, Stephen E. G.Leaver, Lisa A.
273-283页
查看更多>>摘要：To fully understand how problem-solving ability provides adaptive advantages for animals, we should understand the mechanisms that support this ability. Recent studies have highlighted several behavioural traits including persistence, behavioural variety and behavioural/cognitive flexibility that contribute to problem-solving success. However, any increment in these traits will increase time and energy costs in natural conditions, so they are not necessarily advantageous. To examine how behavioural traits vary during learning to solve a problem efficiently, we gave grey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, a problem-solving task that required them to obtain out-of-reach but visible hazelnuts by making a lever drop in the laboratory. We recorded persistence, measured as attempt rate, flexibility, measured as the rate of switching between tactics, and behavioural selectivity, measured as the proportion of effective behaviours, in relation to problem-solving efficiency on a trial-by-trial basis. Persistence and behavioural selectivity were found to be directly associated with problem-solving efficiency. These two factors also mediated the effects of flexibility and increased experience. We also found two routes that led to more efficient problem solving across learning trials: increasing persistence or increasing behavioural selectivity. Flexibility was independent from learning. Flexibility could increase problem-solving efficiency, but it also has a time cost; furthermore, it seemed to involve a trade-off with behavioural selectivity, with high flexibility being associated with a higher frequency of some disadvantageous ineffective behaviours. These results suggest that flexibility is an independent cognitive process or behavioural trait that may not always bring advantages to animals. (C) 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
查看更多>>摘要：Multimodal signalling can improve or maximize information exchange. A challenge is to show that two independent signals, such as vocalizations and visual displays, are deliberately coordinated. Male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, signal visually and acoustically during courtship, performing a stereotyped dance while singing. The male approaches the female hopping in a zig-zag pattern, turning his body axis, and wiping his beak repeatedly on or above the perch. The only previous quantitative study of song and dance choreography in zebra finches revealed that the distribution of all movements during song was not strongly patterned across birds but very similar in fathers and sons. This raises the possibility that particular movements may follow a choreography. Here we report that three operationally defined dance movements, 'beak wipe' (BA), 'turn-around' (TA) and 'hop', occurred with different frequencies and speed during singing than during silence. BW, TA and hops clustered significantly at the start and end of song bouts and were arranged in a nonrandom fashion. In addition, BW, but not TA, were performed faster during song than nonsong. Finally, hops coincided significantly more often than expected by chance with particular notes. Together, these results suggest that male zebra finches integrate their song and dance during courtship. This may help females to identify courting males in a noisy environment and evaluate the intensity and quality of the courtship performance. Our results underscore that the choreography of movement gestures with learned vocalizations, such as hand gestures accompanying speech, is a further parallel between human and avian signalling. They invite future investigations into the underlying neural mechanisms and consequences for mate choice. (C) 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Elsevier