Leaving home: predation and the dispersal of larvae from the maternal burrow of Bledius spectabilis, a subsocial intertidal beetle
Wyatt, T.D.; Foster, W.A. (1989). Leaving home: predation and the dispersal of larvae from the maternal burrow of Bledius spectabilis, a subsocial intertidal beetle. Anim. Behav. 38(5): 778-785. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0003-3472(89)80110-1
In: Animal Behaviour. Academic Press: London,. ISSN 0003-3472; e-ISSN 1095-8282, more
|  |
| Keyword |
Bledius spectabilis Kraatz, 1857 [WoRMS]
|
| Abstract |
Females of the intertidal subsocial beetle, Bledius spectabilis Kraatz (Staphylinidae), look after their eggs and young larvae in burrows in saltmarsh mud. Field observations showed that the beetle larvae disperse from the maternal burrow wowards the end of the first instar. The dispersing larvae belonged to a restricted age-group and dispersed only once, at night (between 2200 and 0400 hours). They moved rapidly on the surface of the saltmarsh soil in search of cracks and holes in which to start their own independent burrows. The nocturnal dispersal of the Bledius larvae overlapped with the activity on the soil surface of the predatory carabid beetle Dicheirotrichus gustavi Crotch. The ability of larvae of different ages to survive attack by the carabid was tested in field experiments. Young larvae taken from the maternal burrow were always eaten by the first carabid that attacked them. Older larvae taken from the maternal burrow and the dispersing larvae survived on average at least one attack by the carabid. By delaying dispersal until the latter part of the first instar, the larvae can significantly increase their chance of countering an attack by this predator during this critical phase. The maternal burrow therefore provides not only protection against the tide but a safe place in which the larvae can grow large enough to repulse predator attack. |
|
