Abstract
Autotomy, the discarding of a prey appendage grasped by a predator, may evolve when the benefits of immediate survival outweigh the costs of appendage loss. In larval damselflies, joints connecting lamellae to the abdomen vary in size and shape within and among taxa suggesting that they may evolve under selection by invertebrate predators, such as dragonfly larvae. Assuming that joint width is proportional to the force required for autotomy, we tested if invertebrate predation favours smaller lamellar joints for autotomy or larger joints for structural support of lamellae for swimming. We compared the maximum joint widths of larval Lestes and Enallagma among ponds that varied in risk of invertebrate predation. Relative predation risk estimated as the frequency of regenerated lamellae within ponds was weakly and positively related to the relative abundance of larval dragonflies. The allometry of lamellar joint size decreased with increasing risk of invertebrate predation across ponds after controlling for variation in body size in Lestes congener but not in Enallagma species. Both species of Lestes had larger joint sizes than the five species of Enallagma, suggesting that the ancestral divergence of lamellar joints between these genera may influence contemporary responses to invertebrate predation.
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Acknowledgments
M. Reynolds provided expertise in larva identification and assisted with estimating the frequency of lamellar regeneration. A. Brown, M. Edwards, and K. O’Brien contributed to field sampling, and along with E. Smyth, A. Shingleton and two anonymous reviewers made constructive comments that benefitted this work. This work was supported by a grant from NSERC Canada to B.W.R.
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Bose, A.P.H., Robinson, B.W. Invertebrate predation predicts variation in an autotomy-related trait in larval damselfly. Evol Ecol 27, 27–38 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-012-9581-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-012-9581-3