Seed hoarders show different hoarding and eating responses towards insect-infested seeds that can affect the fitness of both the seeds and insects. It remains unclear how seed hoarders adopt different strategies in ea...Seed hoarders show different hoarding and eating responses towards insect-infested seeds that can affect the fitness of both the seeds and insects. It remains unclear how seed hoarders adopt different strategies in eating and hoarding infested seeds with and without larvae concealed inside. Here we investigated hoarding and eating responses of Edward＇s long-tailed rats Leo- poldamys edwardsi （scatter hoarders） to weevil infestation of cork oak Quercus variabilis seeds within outdoor enclosures. We provided sound seeds, larvae-emerged seeds, （infested seeds where larvae have emerged） and larvae-concealed seeds （infested seeds with larvae concealed inside） to subjects independently （each seed type presented separately） and in pairwise combina- tions （sound and larvae-emerged seeds; sound and larvae-concealed seeds）. We found that L. edwardsi removed, scatter hoarded and ate fewer larvae-emerged seeds than sound seeds. No difference was found between sound seeds and larvae-concealed seeds. These results suggest that sound and larvae-concealed seeds are more favored by L. edwardsi than larvae-emerged seeds. We posit that not only plants but also insects may benefit from the behavioral responses of hoarders to seed infestation under natural conditions展开更多
基金Acknowledgements We thank X Wang, Y Xiao, G Chen and D Huang for helps with trapping and seed collection. Z Zhang provided comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We also thank the four anonymous reviewers for critical comments and suggestions. This study was partially funded by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Science （KSCX2-SW-105, KSCX2-SW-103） and the National Natural Science Foundation of China （30800120）.
文摘Seed hoarders show different hoarding and eating responses towards insect-infested seeds that can affect the fitness of both the seeds and insects. It remains unclear how seed hoarders adopt different strategies in eating and hoarding infested seeds with and without larvae concealed inside. Here we investigated hoarding and eating responses of Edward＇s long-tailed rats Leo- poldamys edwardsi （scatter hoarders） to weevil infestation of cork oak Quercus variabilis seeds within outdoor enclosures. We provided sound seeds, larvae-emerged seeds, （infested seeds where larvae have emerged） and larvae-concealed seeds （infested seeds with larvae concealed inside） to subjects independently （each seed type presented separately） and in pairwise combina- tions （sound and larvae-emerged seeds; sound and larvae-concealed seeds）. We found that L. edwardsi removed, scatter hoarded and ate fewer larvae-emerged seeds than sound seeds. No difference was found between sound seeds and larvae-concealed seeds. These results suggest that sound and larvae-concealed seeds are more favored by L. edwardsi than larvae-emerged seeds. We posit that not only plants but also insects may benefit from the behavioral responses of hoarders to seed infestation under natural conditions
