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Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results

Abstract. Insects use various types of behaviour, chemical defences, mimetic, aposematic or cryptic appearances as anti-predatory strategies. Among insects, carabid beetles of the genus Brachinus are distasteful prey because they discharge an irritating “cloud” of quinones when threatened. These bee...

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Autores principales: Bonacci, Teresa, Brandmayr, Pietro, Zetto Brandmayr, Tullia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Pensoft Publishers 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3131014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21738410
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.100.1525
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author Bonacci, Teresa
Brandmayr, Pietro
Zetto Brandmayr, Tullia
author_facet Bonacci, Teresa
Brandmayr, Pietro
Zetto Brandmayr, Tullia
author_sort Bonacci, Teresa
collection PubMed
description Abstract. Insects use various types of behaviour, chemical defences, mimetic, aposematic or cryptic appearances as anti-predatory strategies. Among insects, carabid beetles of the genus Brachinus are distasteful prey because they discharge an irritating “cloud” of quinones when threatened. These beetles live in aggregations and adopt warning (conspicuous pattern) colours and chemicals to create a template that is easily learnt by predators. Another carabid beetle, Anchomenus dorsalis, mimics the colours and cuticular profile of Brachinus and is usually found in Brachinus aggregations. In this paper we report results from laboratory observations on feeding choice of the following natural predators - Crocidura leucodon (Insectivora: Soricidae), Ocypus olens (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and Podarcis sicula (Reptilia: Lacertidae) - on carabid beetle species. Comparing the number of attacks of predators towards aposematic and non-aposematic prey, there was a statistically significant preference towards non-aposematic prey.
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spelling pubmed-31310142011-07-07 Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results Bonacci, Teresa Brandmayr, Pietro Zetto Brandmayr, Tullia Zookeys Article Abstract. Insects use various types of behaviour, chemical defences, mimetic, aposematic or cryptic appearances as anti-predatory strategies. Among insects, carabid beetles of the genus Brachinus are distasteful prey because they discharge an irritating “cloud” of quinones when threatened. These beetles live in aggregations and adopt warning (conspicuous pattern) colours and chemicals to create a template that is easily learnt by predators. Another carabid beetle, Anchomenus dorsalis, mimics the colours and cuticular profile of Brachinus and is usually found in Brachinus aggregations. In this paper we report results from laboratory observations on feeding choice of the following natural predators - Crocidura leucodon (Insectivora: Soricidae), Ocypus olens (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and Podarcis sicula (Reptilia: Lacertidae) - on carabid beetle species. Comparing the number of attacks of predators towards aposematic and non-aposematic prey, there was a statistically significant preference towards non-aposematic prey. Pensoft Publishers 2011-05-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3131014/ /pubmed/21738410 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.100.1525 Text en Teresa Bonacci, Pietro Brandmayr, Tullia Zetto Brandmayr http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Bonacci, Teresa
Brandmayr, Pietro
Zetto Brandmayr, Tullia
Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results
title Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results
title_full Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results
title_fullStr Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results
title_full_unstemmed Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results
title_short Predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results
title_sort predator feeding choice on conspicuous and non-conspicuous carabid beetles: first results
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3131014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21738410
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.100.1525
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