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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Comparison Of Native And Non-Native Predator Consumption Rates And Prey Avoidance Behavior In North America And Europe, Ayse Gül Ünlü, John J. Obrycki, Roman Bucher
Comparison Of Native And Non-Native Predator Consumption Rates And Prey Avoidance Behavior In North America And Europe, Ayse Gül Ünlü, John J. Obrycki, Roman Bucher
Entomology Faculty Publications
Novel predator–prey interactions can contribute to the invasion success of non-native predators. For example, native prey can fail to recognize and avoid non-native predators due to a lack of co-evolutionary history and cue dissimilarity with native predators. This might result in a competitive advantage for non-native predators. Numerous lady beetle species were globally redistributed as biological control agents against aphids, resulting in novel predator–prey interactions. Here, we investigated the strength of avoidance behavior of the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) toward chemical cues of native lady beetles and non-native Asian Harmonia axyridis and European Coccinella septempunctata and Hippodamia variegata …
Japanese Beetles’ Feeding On Milkweed Flowers May Compromise Efforts To Restore Monarch Butterfly Habitat, Adam M. Baker, Daniel A. Potter
Japanese Beetles’ Feeding On Milkweed Flowers May Compromise Efforts To Restore Monarch Butterfly Habitat, Adam M. Baker, Daniel A. Potter
Entomology Faculty Publications
The eastern North American migratory population of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) is in serious decline. Habitat restoration, including adding millions of host plants to compensate for loss of milkweed in US cropland, is a key part of the international conservation strategy to return this iconic butterfly to sustainable status. We report here that Popillia japonica, a polyphagous, invasive beetle, aggregates and feeds on flowers of Asclepias syriaca, the monarch’s most important larval food plant, reducing fruiting and seed set by >90% and extensively damaging milkweed umbels in the field. The beetle’s ongoing incursion into the monarch’s …
A Window Of Opportunity: Subdominant Predators Can Use Suboptimal Prey, Kelly A. Jackson, Joshua S. Mccord, Jennifer A. White
A Window Of Opportunity: Subdominant Predators Can Use Suboptimal Prey, Kelly A. Jackson, Joshua S. Mccord, Jennifer A. White
Entomology Faculty Publications
Introduced species have been linked to declines of native species through mechanisms including intraguild predation and exploitative competition. However, coexistence among species may be promoted by niche partitioning if native species can use resources that the invasive species cannot. Previous research has shown that some strains of the aphid Aphis craccivora are toxic to a competitively dominant invasive lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis. Our objective was to investigate whether these aphids might be an exploitable resource for other, subdominant, lady beetle species. We compared larval development rate, survival, and adult weight of five lady beetle species in no-choice experiments with …