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Travel time affects optimal diets in depleting patches

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Abstract

Models of prey choice in depleting patches predict an expanding specialist strategy: Animals should start as specialists on the most profitable prey and then at some point during patch exploitation switch to a generalist foraging strategy. When patch residence time is long, the switch to a generalist diet is predicted to occur earlier than when patch residence time is short. We tested these predictions under laboratory conditions using female parasitoids (Aphidius colemani) exploiting patches of mixed instars aphid hosts (Myzus persicae, L1 and L4). The duration of patch exploitation was manipulated by changing travel time between patches. As predicted, patch residence times increase with travel time between patches. Our results provide empirical support for the expanding specialist prediction: Parasitoid females specialized initially on the more profitable hosts (L4), and as the patch depleted, they switched to a generalist diet by accepting more frequently the less profitable hosts (L1). The point at which they switched from specialist to generalist occurred later when travel times and hence patch residence times were short. By affecting the patch exploitation strategy, travel time also determines the composition of hosts left behind, the “giving up composition.” The change in the relative density of remaining host types alters aphid populations’ age structure.

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Acknowledgments

This study and MB were financially supported by grants from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to GB, JB, and LAG. MB received additional financial support from a Graduate Scholarship from the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT) and a Major Fellowship from McGill University. We thank Jenny Vosburg and Josiane Vaillancourt for technical assistance with insects’ rearing.

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Author notes

  1. Maryse Barrette & Guy Boivin

    Present address: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 430 blv Gouin, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, J3B 3E6, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 1C0, Canada

    Maryse Barrette & Guy Boivin

  2. Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale, Département de sciences biologiques, Université de Montréal, 4101 Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, QC, H1X 2B2, Canada

    Jacques Brodeur

  3. Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, succursale centre-ville, Montréal, QC, H3P 3P8, Canada

    Luc-Alain Giraldeau

Authors
  1. Maryse Barrette
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  2. Guy Boivin
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  3. Jacques Brodeur
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  4. Luc-Alain Giraldeau
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryse Barrette.

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Communicated by J. Lindström

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Barrette, M., Boivin, G., Brodeur, J. et al. Travel time affects optimal diets in depleting patches. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 64, 593–598 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0876-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0876-5

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