Pit builders are assisted by walls to find suitable sites for pit construction but are slowed down by obstacles and their initial distance from the destination
Noah Michaeli, Yoav Nadu, Aziz Subach, Inon Scharf
{"title":"Pit builders are assisted by walls to find suitable sites for pit construction but are slowed down by obstacles and their initial distance from the destination","authors":"Noah Michaeli, Yoav Nadu, Aziz Subach, Inon Scharf","doi":"10.1111/een.13368","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<jats:list> <jats:list-item>Habitat selection plays a critical role in the survival and reproduction of animals, with implications for all important behaviours. Animals are often limited in their familiarity with their habitat and rely on their senses and the habitat structure to detect suitable sites to settle in.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>We focus here on a trap‐building predator, the wormlion, which constructs pitfall traps in loose soil, and examine how the distance from suitable microhabitats and the presence of obstacles affect its habitat selection.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>We conducted four experiments. Experiment 1 assessed the impact of distance on the probability of wormlions reaching a suitable microhabitat. Experiment 2 examined the interaction between distance and obstacles. Experiment 3 investigated the influence of walls on the probability of reaching destinations. Experiment 4 evaluated walls as either leading paths or barriers.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>Our results showed that increasing distance from the destination negatively affected the probability of wormlions reaching it, with larger individuals more likely to cover greater distances. Obstacles interacted with distance, generally decreasing movement when present. Walls positively influenced orientation, aiding wormlions in reaching suitable sites, either by following the wall or locating the destination along the wall. The function of walls varied, sometimes facilitating movement and sometimes decreasing it, depending on their orientation and context.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>These findings suggest that walls may serve as navigational aids for wormlions in urban environments, assisting them in locating suitable microhabitats. This has implications for understanding habitat selection in urban ecosystems. Future research should explore the long‐term effects of walls on wormlion survival and habitat quality in more natural settings.</jats:list-item> </jats:list>","PeriodicalId":50557,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Entomology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Entomology","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/een.13368","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENTOMOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Habitat selection plays a critical role in the survival and reproduction of animals, with implications for all important behaviours. Animals are often limited in their familiarity with their habitat and rely on their senses and the habitat structure to detect suitable sites to settle in.We focus here on a trap‐building predator, the wormlion, which constructs pitfall traps in loose soil, and examine how the distance from suitable microhabitats and the presence of obstacles affect its habitat selection.We conducted four experiments. Experiment 1 assessed the impact of distance on the probability of wormlions reaching a suitable microhabitat. Experiment 2 examined the interaction between distance and obstacles. Experiment 3 investigated the influence of walls on the probability of reaching destinations. Experiment 4 evaluated walls as either leading paths or barriers.Our results showed that increasing distance from the destination negatively affected the probability of wormlions reaching it, with larger individuals more likely to cover greater distances. Obstacles interacted with distance, generally decreasing movement when present. Walls positively influenced orientation, aiding wormlions in reaching suitable sites, either by following the wall or locating the destination along the wall. The function of walls varied, sometimes facilitating movement and sometimes decreasing it, depending on their orientation and context.These findings suggest that walls may serve as navigational aids for wormlions in urban environments, assisting them in locating suitable microhabitats. This has implications for understanding habitat selection in urban ecosystems. Future research should explore the long‐term effects of walls on wormlion survival and habitat quality in more natural settings.
期刊介绍:
Ecological Entomology publishes top-quality original research on the ecology of insects and related invertebrate taxa. Our aim is to publish papers that will be of considerable interest to the wide community of ecologists who are motivated by ecological or evolutionary theory. The suitability of a manuscript will usually be assessed within 5 days.
We publish full-length Original Articles as well as Reviews, Short Communications, Methods and Natural History papers. In Original Articles, we greatly prefer papers that test specific hypotheses and which have a high degree of novelty. All categories aim for innovative contributions that advance the subject of ecological entomology.