Antipredator Defense as a Limited Resource : Unequal Predation Risk and Broods of an Insect With Maternal Care

In Constance Naden’s poem, “Natural Selection”, science and emotions coincide. Not many authors make a connection between science and their love life, but that does not mean it is impossible. The main character is a scientist, shown by verses and words such as “My shelves, they are furnished with stones” (9) and “All sorted and labelled with care” (10). This scientist clearly portrays an emotional connection to a woman named Chloe and we learn this information when the author states, “I love her more when...” (7) displaying his affection. His infatuation is altered when a third character enters, changing Chloe’s attention, but this event has a twist and wider understanding to this scientist’s knowledge. Not many people would expect a scientist to develop such blunt feelings with a deeper meaning, but the speaker decided to take on that task. The detail the author uses within the poem, must very closely be

Brood parasitism is a unique behavior performed by some species that tricks another host species into raising its young. This is a fairly common behavior among the Cuculidae family of which 53 of the 136 species perform brood parasitism. My question and what I hope to review within this paper is, what has caused brood parasitism, what has shaped it, and what are the adaptive values of Cuckoo brood parasitism? Within Cuckoo’s, this strange behavior has ultimately been shaped through environmental pressures and has become advantageous. Ecological changes forced Cuckoo’s to change migrational patterns, habitat, range size, and foraging, which lead to brood parasitism. Once brood parasitism arose, a coevolutionary arms race began between the Cuckoo’s and hosts. Due to parasitic egg rejections, Cuckoo eggs that closely resembled host eggs were selected for, leading to higher success rates of the behavior. This gives Cuckoo’s many advantageous’, as there is no longer a need for investing time and energy into raising their young. Brood parasitism also gives Cuckoo’s the advantage of exploiting diverse breeding habitats; reduced diet restraints, and foraging. Ultimately this behavior provides many benefits to Cuckoos and allows them successfully raise young while providing no parental care.

The observation that birds reared in isolation from other birds have the capacity to build nests without observation or learning experience provides evidence for the

Scientists have shown Fairy-Wren parents will often make substantial sacrifices for their young in the initial stages of their lives so their offspring can flourish into fully matured adults. Since Fairy-Wren parents make many sacrifices for their young, making a mistake in offspring recognition such as identifying parasitic Cuckoo nestlings as their own or even identify their offspring as intruders (resulting in abandonment) will have a detrimental cost to

The most extensive metamorphic changes of insects internal organs occur with development of the thoracic musculature required for flight, the arrangement of nervous system and the development of gonads [2].

     Another very intriguing fact that I learned is that great gray owls make very devoted parents. This was discovered when it was observed that mothers will practically starve themselves when prey is scarce. Females sometimes even lose one-third of their body weight in just one month. They do this so their chick can eat the maximum amount of food as possible and grow up healthy. (Great Gray Owls, 2005)

A female of the species will sometimes destroy another couples nest in order to make them abandon the tree and free up space for another nest

Drosophila melanogaster, or the common fruit fly, is a holometabolous insect, meaning it has larval and pupal stages before becoming an adult. At the beginning of development, the D. melanogaster eggs go through syncytial development, which allows for a unique pattern of development. Furthermore, as the egg develops it is surrounded by a thick layer called the chorion, and as two respiratory filaments and a micropyle. Once the egg develops into a larva, it goes through a first, second and third instar stage. In the third instar stage, the imaginal discs and salivary glands develop. The imaginal discs are pockets of epithelium cells that form the adult structures of the organism, including the wings, halters, legs antennae and eyes. The salivary glands are large cells that contain large polytene chromosomes that can be observed when the the glands are stained and squashed.

The male swims over the freshly lain eggs, fertilizing them externally in the water, and stays in the nest to protect the eggs. He will eat those that fail to be fertilized successfully or become useless for any other reason. The eggs are attached to the nesting site, but it is not a strong hold, thus the need for the male to stay for protection from predators. The eggs will remain in the site for an incubation period that averages about one week. The actual number of days is dependent upon how hot or cold the water surrounding the eggs becomes and how rich in nutrients the chosen nest area is. In general, colder water will produce a lengthier nesting time. Using his “pectoral fins,” the male will “fan” the eggs and “aerate with his mouth” in order to provide an optimal environment for the eggs to survive incubation. After this period, the eggs will hatch and spend about 10 days as larvae. Then, the reproduction stage has

All in all, greetings were initiated by adult females and occurred among matrilineal members and across matrilines. Current research attributes preliminary actions of reproduction that include solicitations of an open-mouthed grin accompanied by head shaking directed towards a single male ~10 m from the female (Di Fiore and Fleischer, 2004). These actions displayed by the female before copulation are categorized as sexual overture. Sexual overture, as presented, is when the female will stare at a male with the shoulders hunched up and round, elbows out, teeth chattering, and lip-smacking (Ramirez, 1988). This behavior is common and is seen in situations of when an estrus female is near a male (Ramirez, 1988). This display functions to solicit mounting from the male and may be responded to by mounting by the male (Ramirez,

The pterodactyl was thought to be extinct, nevertheless, Eerie knew better and had kept secret the only known egg in existence. For reasons beyond her understanding the egg had lain dormant for countless centuries. Eerie had dug out a bed and covered the egg with straw to keep it warm.

Our question that we’re trying to answer is “Why will the Characteristics of a Bug Population Change in Different Ways in Response to Different Types of Predation”. Our objective was to see if there was any changes in different predation. If the insect's population change because of their characteristics, it means that our hypothesis is correct

For example, Mumme (1992) found that removal of non-breeders in the Florida scrub Jay had no significant effect on breeder survival, clutch size, or hatching success. In addition, Mumme discovered the removal of non-breeders costs experimental groups suffered higher rates of predation on nestlings and lower rates of fledgling survival (Mumme 1992). Through some further analysis of the data, Mumme states that it was not only the presence of non-breeders, rather it was how much the non-breeders helped that attributed to the increase in long-term reproductive success (Mumme 1992). In other words, the more a non-breeder helped raise young, long-term reproductive success increases. Nevertheless, long-term reproductive success having a direct correlation with the number of helpers is usually a strong indicator of cooperative breeding (Koenig 1981); however, it is unknown in some species, like black-tailed prairie dogs. The black-tailed prairie dogs provide a great opportunity to study what factors contribute to their long-term reproductive

First and foremost, Thomas uses both, through his text, tedious scientific language as well as an abundance of similes diversifying his level of language balancing, the complex vocabulary with simple but vivid descriptions. For example Thomas describes individual slime-molds as been “amebocytes” (235) but when fusing together those individual form a “slug, solid as a trout” (235), thus using simultaneously two level of language on the opposite side of the spectrum. Consequently, by using a varied level of language, Thomas satisfy both the skeptic scientists’ need of a thorough scientific argumentation as well as the general public’s need of a simple, understandable theory and thus broadening his intended audience allowing more individuals to read about his view on how we should accumulate knowledge. Furthermore, the author’s use of different tones emphasizes the idea that other life-forms’ organisms work in a more efficient way than human society does, thus indicating that we should learn from them. Hence, while termites build “beautiful, curving, symmetrical arches” (234) when gathering pellets, us, humans, only “build a certain kind of Hill” (235) when amassing knowledge. Moreover, this difference in tone is also present when Thomas compares human and bird behaviour,

Edward Osborne Wilson, or E.O Wilson for short, is an American Biologist. He is well known for various important works in the Biology field. He also endures many nicknames such as “Father of Social Biology” (the social behavior in animals), “Father of Biodiversity” (variety of life in a habitat), but E.O Wilson is mainly known for his work in myrmecology, the study of ants. Before Wilson’s studies, the world knew substantially less about sociobiology, Biodiversity, how ants communicated, and many other theorems that Wilson experimented with.