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Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum
SIMPLE SUMMARY: Slugs are important pests. Models to forecast slug populations make assumptions about growth and mortality in response to environmental factors. To refine these models, we studied the effect of hatching season on the growth and survival of Deroceras reticulatum, a worldwide pest. Slu...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7693934/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33138240 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11110742 |
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author | Shirley, Mark Howlett, Sally Port, Gordon |
author_facet | Shirley, Mark Howlett, Sally Port, Gordon |
author_sort | Shirley, Mark |
collection | PubMed |
description | SIMPLE SUMMARY: Slugs are important pests. Models to forecast slug populations make assumptions about growth and mortality in response to environmental factors. To refine these models, we studied the effect of hatching season on the growth and survival of Deroceras reticulatum, a worldwide pest. Slugs hatching in spring and autumn were compared at three rearing temperatures (ambient, 12 °C and 15 °C). Deroceras reticulatum reared under identical conditions showed great variation in growth and strong bimodality in growth rates. At all rearing temperatures, growth was influenced by hatching season; in all cases, fast growers dominated in autumn and slow growers dominated in spring. Deroceras reticulatum populations may be partitioned into ”slow growers” and ”fast growers”. Fast growers responded to warmer conditions, growing to large sizes. Slow growers, in contrast, gained weight at comparable rates to ambient reared slugs, regardless of the elevated constant temperatures. The peaks of slug activity seen in the field in autumn and spring are possibly not distinct generations as some slugs may mature early/late and slip into the alternative cohort. Rather, the observed autumn and spring peaks in slug numbers may be a response of a mixed-age population to the favourable environmental conditions at that time. ABSTRACT: Models to forecast slug populations make assumptions about growth and mortality in response to environmental factors. To refine these models, the growth trajectories and survival of Deroceras reticulatum, a worldwide pest, hatching in spring and autumn were compared at three rearing temperatures (ambient, 12 °C and 15 °C). Deroceras reticulatum reared under identical conditions showed great variation in growth and strong bimodality in growth rates. At all rearing temperatures, growth was influenced by hatching season; in all cases, fast growers dominated in autumn and slow growers dominated in spring. Survival was influenced by hatching season: autumn-born slugs survived better at ambient temperatures, but spring-born slugs had better survival at 15 °C. Deroceras reticulatum may be partitioned into ”slow growers” and ”fast growers”. Fast growers responded to warmer conditions, growing to large sizes. Slow growers, in contrast, gained weight at comparable rates to ambient reared slugs, regardless of the elevated constant temperatures. The peaks of slug activity in autumn and spring are possibly not distinct generations as some slugs may mature early/late and slip into the alternative cohort. Rather, the observed autumn and spring peaks in slug numbers may be a response of a mixed-age population to the favourable environmental conditions at that time. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7693934 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-76939342020-11-28 Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum Shirley, Mark Howlett, Sally Port, Gordon Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Slugs are important pests. Models to forecast slug populations make assumptions about growth and mortality in response to environmental factors. To refine these models, we studied the effect of hatching season on the growth and survival of Deroceras reticulatum, a worldwide pest. Slugs hatching in spring and autumn were compared at three rearing temperatures (ambient, 12 °C and 15 °C). Deroceras reticulatum reared under identical conditions showed great variation in growth and strong bimodality in growth rates. At all rearing temperatures, growth was influenced by hatching season; in all cases, fast growers dominated in autumn and slow growers dominated in spring. Deroceras reticulatum populations may be partitioned into ”slow growers” and ”fast growers”. Fast growers responded to warmer conditions, growing to large sizes. Slow growers, in contrast, gained weight at comparable rates to ambient reared slugs, regardless of the elevated constant temperatures. The peaks of slug activity seen in the field in autumn and spring are possibly not distinct generations as some slugs may mature early/late and slip into the alternative cohort. Rather, the observed autumn and spring peaks in slug numbers may be a response of a mixed-age population to the favourable environmental conditions at that time. ABSTRACT: Models to forecast slug populations make assumptions about growth and mortality in response to environmental factors. To refine these models, the growth trajectories and survival of Deroceras reticulatum, a worldwide pest, hatching in spring and autumn were compared at three rearing temperatures (ambient, 12 °C and 15 °C). Deroceras reticulatum reared under identical conditions showed great variation in growth and strong bimodality in growth rates. At all rearing temperatures, growth was influenced by hatching season; in all cases, fast growers dominated in autumn and slow growers dominated in spring. Survival was influenced by hatching season: autumn-born slugs survived better at ambient temperatures, but spring-born slugs had better survival at 15 °C. Deroceras reticulatum may be partitioned into ”slow growers” and ”fast growers”. Fast growers responded to warmer conditions, growing to large sizes. Slow growers, in contrast, gained weight at comparable rates to ambient reared slugs, regardless of the elevated constant temperatures. The peaks of slug activity in autumn and spring are possibly not distinct generations as some slugs may mature early/late and slip into the alternative cohort. Rather, the observed autumn and spring peaks in slug numbers may be a response of a mixed-age population to the favourable environmental conditions at that time. MDPI 2020-10-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7693934/ /pubmed/33138240 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11110742 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Shirley, Mark Howlett, Sally Port, Gordon Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum |
title | Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum |
title_full | Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum |
title_fullStr | Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum |
title_full_unstemmed | Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum |
title_short | Not All Slugs Are the Same: Variation in Growth and Development of the Slug Deroceras reticulatum |
title_sort | not all slugs are the same: variation in growth and development of the slug deroceras reticulatum |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7693934/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33138240 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11110742 |
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