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Maternal Care in the Burrower Bug Adomerus triguttulus: Defensive Behavior

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Abstract

Some burrower bugs (Heteroptera: Cydnidae) show complex patterns of maternal care, including defense against predators and the provisioning of food to nymphs. Recently, the subsocial cydnid bugs have attracted the interest of researchers as model systems to study the behavioral ecology of parental investment. However, there have been few attempts to quantify the fitness benefits of maternal behavior other than provisioning. Here, we examined the maternal behavior of Adomerus triguttulus and its adaptive significance in terms of offspring survival in the field. A. triguttulus young depend on fallen nutlets of myrmecophorous mints, Lamium spp. Under field conditions, females attend offspring, from eggs to second instar nymphs, in nests on the ground under the litter. When disturbed, the females showed aggressive responses against the source of disturbance. The females often carried spherical clutches of eggs away from the nest when heavily disturbed. Female-removal experiments in the field demonstrated a defensive function of the female behavior; predators, such as ants, attacked egg clutches without females and the clutches often disappeared during the experiment. Egg clutches without females sometimes also suffered from fungal infection. Selective factors on maternal defensive behavior in A. triguttulus are discussed in terms of habitat properties possibly emerging from insect–plant associations.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C: 13640628) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systematic Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan

    Taichi Nakahira

  2. Department of Biology, Naruto University of Education, Naruto, Tokushima, 772-8502, Japan

    Shin-ichi Kudo

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  1. Taichi Nakahira
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  2. Shin-ichi Kudo
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Correspondence to Shin-ichi Kudo.

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Nakahira, T., Kudo, Si. Maternal Care in the Burrower Bug Adomerus triguttulus: Defensive Behavior. J Insect Behav 21, 306–316 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-008-9129-0

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