Field Observations of the Sheltering Behavior of the Solitarious Phase of the Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria, with Particular Reference to Antipredator Strategies

• OULD MAENO Koutaro

  Locust control and research team, The Mauritanian Desert Locust Centre: Centre National de Lutte Antiacridienne (CNLA)

• PIOU Cyril

  CIRAD, UPR Bioagresseurs analyse et maîtrise du risque

• OULD ELY Sidi

  Locust control and research team, The Mauritanian Desert Locust Centre: Centre National de Lutte Antiacridienne (CNLA)

• OULD MOHAMED Sid′Ahmed

  Locust control and research team, The Mauritanian Desert Locust Centre: Centre National de Lutte Antiacridienne (CNLA)

• EL HACEN JAAVAR Mohamed

  Locust control and research team, The Mauritanian Desert Locust Centre: Centre National de Lutte Antiacridienne (CNLA)

• ABDALLAHI OULD BABAH Mohamed

  Locust control and research team, The Mauritanian Desert Locust Centre: Centre National de Lutte Antiacridienne (CNLA)

• NAKAMURA Satoshi

  Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)

書誌事項

タイトル別名

• Field Observations of the Sheltering Behavior of the Solitarious Phase of the Desert Locust,<I> Schistocerca gregaria</I>, with Particular Reference to Antipredator Strategies

抄録

Solitarious phase locusts are cryptic animals and usually seek shelter in plants. This trait was thought to be a specific antipredator strategy associated with the solitarious phase. However, information on preferences for particular shelter plants and sheltering behavior remains limited. In the present study, small-scale field observations were conducted to investigate the sheltering behavior of the solitarious phase of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, in relation to plant species and size. A spiny plant, Fagonia arabica, and two spineless plants, Nucularia perrini and Stipagrostis plumosa, were identified at the survey site. Although the size of F. arabica did not differ significantly from that of the two other plant species, almost all the solitarious locusts used F. arabica for shelter. Locusts were found on a majority (78%) of the individual F. arabica examined, but the number of sheltering locusts varied. The F. arabica plants with locusts were significantly larger than those without. A positive correlation was found between the total number of sheltered locusts (nymphs and adults) per individual plant and the plant size (m³). The same tendency was observed for nymphs and adults alike. The local densities (no. of sheltered locusts / plant size (m³)) remained constant over a range of plant sizes. These results might indicate that solitarious locusts selected their shelter plant based on its species and size. Because F. arabica is a spiny plant, we concluded that solitarious locusts use not only visual but also physical defense mechanisms as antipredator strategies.

収録刊行物

• Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly: JARQ

  Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly: JARQ 46 (4), 339-345, 2012

  国立研究開発法人　国際農林水産業研究センター

キーワード

• behavior
• density-dependent phase polyphenism
• morphology

詳細情報

• CRID: 1390001204700274176
• NII論文ID: 130002148002
• DOI: 10.6090/jarq.46.339
• ISSN: 21858896
• ISSN: 00213551
• 本文言語コード: en
• データソース種別:
  • JaLC
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
• 抄録ライセンスフラグ: 使用不可