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Arousal from death feigning by vibrational stimuli: comparison of Tribolium species

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Abstract

Death feigning (or tonic immobility) is an effective antipredator strategy. However, prolonged immobility on the ground increases the risk of being parasitized or eaten by predators, and thus, insects must rouse themselves when appropriate stimulation is provided. Very few studies on the effect of stimulus intensity on arousal from death feigning have been conducted. A previous study using Tribolium castaneum showed an existing threshold for the intensity of the stimulus that causes arousal from death feigning. Whether there are differences between species in the threshold for arousal is an interesting question. In the present study, we, therefore, compared the effect of stimulus strength on arousal from death feigning in two closely related species, namely, T. confusum and T. freemani, which are established strains that have been artificially selected for longer duration of death feigning. Also, part of the study was to determine whether there was a positive association between intensity of stimulus needed to rouse and the duration of death feigning. We discuss why there is a difference in the strength of the stimulus needed for arousal from death feigning among Tribolium species, for which we included the data for T. castaneum from a previous study.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Indrikis Krams and an anonymous reviewer for invaluable comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, KAKENHI 17H05976 and 18H02510, MEXT, JSPS to T.M. and from funding from NERC (Studentship to J.J, grant number NE/L002450/1). J.J. acknowledges financial support from JSPS as a JSPS International Research Fellow (Summer Program 2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University, Kita-ku, Okayama City, 700-8530, Japan

    Ryo Ishihara, Kentarou Matsumura, Ji Yuhao & Takahisa Miyatake

  2. Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, United Kingdom

    Jordan Elouise Jones

  3. School of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 680-4 Kawazu, Iizuka-shi, Fukuoka, 820-8502, Japan

    Ryusuke Fujisawa

  4. Faculty of Information Science and Engineering, Kyoto Sangyo University, Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8555, Japan

    Naohisa Nagaya

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  1. Ryo Ishihara
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  2. Kentarou Matsumura
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  3. Jordan Elouise Jones
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  4. Ji Yuhao
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  5. Ryusuke Fujisawa
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  6. Naohisa Nagaya
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  7. Takahisa Miyatake
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Correspondence to Takahisa Miyatake.

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Ishihara, R., Matsumura, K., Jones, J.E. et al. Arousal from death feigning by vibrational stimuli: comparison of Tribolium species. J Ethol 39, 107–113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-020-00680-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-020-00680-0

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