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Soldiers with large weapons in predator-abundant midsummer: phenotypic plasticity in a eusocial aphid

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Abstract

Eusocial aphids produce sterile individuals (“soldiers”) that specialize behaviorally and morphologically to protect their colony from predators, while production of soldiers can negatively affect colony growth because of reproductive allocation and opportunity cost. Hence, a cost-saving soldier production strategy is expected to be favored. Here, we hypothesize that, to save the cost, a eusocial aphid Ceratovacuna japonica produces soldiers with smaller weapon in the season when predators are not abundant. The abundance of two specialist lepidopteran predators (i.e., Taraka hamada and Atkinsonia ignipicta) of C. japonica dramatically increased, and aphid colony size significantly decreased, from July to August. In line with these, the soldiers in August had larger weapons (i.e., frontal horns) than those in June, indicating a correlational increase in weapon size with predation pressure. We predict that a reliable prospective signal indicating the coming of midsummer (environmental temperature) induces mother aphids to produce soldiers with larger weapons. Experiments clarified that soldiers produced at 20 °C (typical temperature of July to August) had larger weapons than those produced at 15 °C (typical temperature of May to July). Such phenotypic plasticity appears to be adaptive to maximize the fitness of C. japonica under a temporally variable but predictable predation environment. These results indicate that C. japonica aphids not merely have distinctive reproductive—and soldier castes, but also produce differentially armed soldiers in a habitat with temporally changing predation risks.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ms. Yumi Nakadera for helpful discussions. This work was supported by JSPS to M. H. (no. 216649), to O. K. (no. 2277001100), and to T. I. (no. 22570015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mountain and Environmental Science, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3–1–1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390–8621, Japan

    Mitsuru Hattori

  2. Teshio Experimental Forest, Field Science Center, Hokkaido University, Toikanbetsu, Horonobe, Hokkaido, 098–2943, Japan

    Osamu Kishida

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shinshu University, 3–1–1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390–8621, Japan

    Takao Itino

  4. Institute of Mountain Science, Shinshu University, 3–1–1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390–8621, Japan

    Takao Itino

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  1. Mitsuru Hattori
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Correspondence to Mitsuru Hattori.

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Hattori, M., Kishida, O. & Itino, T. Soldiers with large weapons in predator-abundant midsummer: phenotypic plasticity in a eusocial aphid. Evol Ecol 27, 847–862 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-012-9628-5

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