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Disease, contagious cannibalism, and associated population crash in an omnivorous bug, Geocoris pallens

  • Population ecology – original research
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Abstract

Disease and cannibalism are two strongly density-dependent processes that can suppress predator populations. Here we show that California populations of the omnivorous predatory bug Geocoris pallens are subject to infection by a pathogen, as yet unidentified, that elicits elevated expression of cannibalism. Laboratory experiments showed that the pathogen is moderately virulent, causing flattened abdomens, elevated nymphal mortality, delayed development, and reduced body size of adult females. Infection furthermore increases the expression of cannibalism. Field populations of Geocoris spp. declined strongly in association with sharp increases in the expression of egg cannibalism by adult G. pallens. Increased cannibalism was accompanied by a strongly bimodal distribution of cannibalism expression, with some females (putatively uninfected) expressing little cannibalism and others (putatively infected) consuming most or all of the eggs present. Highly cannibalistic females did not increase their consumption of Ephestia cautella moth eggs, suggesting that the high cannibalism phenotype reflected a specific loss of restraint against eating conspecifics. Highly cannibalistic females also often exhibited reduced egg laying, consistent with a virulent pathogen; less frequently, more cannibalistic females exhibited elevated egg laying, suggesting that cannibalism might also facilitate recycling of nutrients in eggs. Elevated cannibalism was not correlated with reduced prey availability or elevated field densities of G. pallens. Geocoris pallens population crashes appear to reflect the combined consequences of direct virulence—adverse pathogen effects on the infected host’s physiology—and indirect virulence—mortality of both infected and uninfected individuals due to elevated cannibalism expression by infected individuals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Nick Groenenberg, Joe Baird, and the late Steve Orloff who provided help over many years in locating suitable fields for our sampling; Benjamin Maples and Shucun Sun for assistance in the field and helpful discussions; Norma Ordaz and Anthony Le for invaluable help with the infection experiments; Maria T. Gonzalez for assistance with primer design, virus purification, RNA/DNA libraries, and sequencing; Tobin Northfield for helping to reconstruct the record of informal sampling efforts; and Ian Grettenberger for locating old data sets. This work was supported by funding from USDA AFRI Grant no. 2009-02096, Postdoctoral Award no. FI-457-2011 from BARD (The United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund), and BSF (US-Israel Binational Science Foundation) Grant 2013-306. We dedicate this paper to the memory of our colleague Larry Godfrey, who passed away during the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Jay A. Rosenheim, Nicholas A. Booster, Michael Culshaw-Maurer, Tobias G. Mueller, Randall L. Kuffel, Yao-Hua Law, Treanna Pierce & Larry D. Godfrey

  2. University of California Statewide IPM Program, Davis, USA

    Peter B. Goodell

  3. U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Fort Pierce, FL, 34945, USA

    Wayne B. Hunter

  4. Department of Natural Resources, Institute of Plant Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization (Volcani Center), Rishon LeTsion, 7505101, Israel

    Asaf Sadeh

Authors
  1. Jay A. Rosenheim
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  2. Nicholas A. Booster
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  3. Michael Culshaw-Maurer
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  4. Tobias G. Mueller
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  5. Randall L. Kuffel
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  6. Yao-Hua Law
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  7. Peter B. Goodell
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  8. Treanna Pierce
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  9. Larry D. Godfrey
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  10. Wayne B. Hunter
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  11. Asaf Sadeh
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Contributions

JAR, AS, NB, MCM, TM, RK, WBH, and YHL conceived the idea for the study and designed the work; all authors collected the data; JAR and AS analyzed the data and led the writing with input from all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jay A. Rosenheim or Asaf Sadeh.

Additional information

Communicated by Evan Siemann.

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Rosenheim, J.A., Booster, N.A., Culshaw-Maurer, M. et al. Disease, contagious cannibalism, and associated population crash in an omnivorous bug, Geocoris pallens. Oecologia 190, 69–83 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-019-04407-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-019-04407-y

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