Investigating movement in the laboratory: dispersal apparatus designs and the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum

The natural dispersal of Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) has been emulated in the laboratory for more than 50 years, using a simple dispersal apparatus. This has typically comprised of a starting container (initial resource or patch) connected by tubing, which contains thread for the animals to climb into a tube and hence to an end container. That is, beetles move to a new viable resource or patch from an inter-patch zone or non-viable habitat. We modified this basic apparatus design to test the effect of tubing length and tubing insertion angle on the dispersal rate and proportion of successful dispersers. We expected that the proportion of successful dispersers would be repeatable within each apparatus design, and that increasing tubing length and steepness of the insertion angle would reduce dispersal rate and success across apparatus designs. Dispersal increased linearly through time, similarly so for both males and females. The design with the most vertical t...赤拟谷盗（Tribolium castaneum Herbst，鞘翅目（Coleoptera）拟步甲科（Tenebrionidae））的自然扩散行为，已有超50年的实验室模拟研究，相关实验均采用简易扩散装置。该装置通常由承载初始资源斑块的起始容器通过管路连接而成，管路内设置供昆虫攀爬的丝线，使甲虫可沿管路进入末端容器。简言之，该类甲虫会从斑块间区域或非适宜生境，迁移至新的可利用资源或斑块。我们对该基础装置的设计进行了改良，以探究管路长度与管路插入角度对扩散速率及成功扩散个体比例的影响。我们预设：同一装置设计下，成功扩散个体的比例具备可重复性；且随着管路长度增加、插入角度陡度提升，不同装置设计的扩散速率与扩散成功率均会下降。实验结果显示，扩散行为随时间呈线性增长，雄性与雌性个体的扩散模式无显著差异。插入角度最接近垂直的装置设计……