Data from: Behavioural flexibility in spider mites: oviposition site shifts based on past and present stimuli from conspecifics and predators

Predator-experienced individuals often change their predation avoidance response when they re-encounter the same predators or their cues. Recent reports show that behavioural change sometimes occurs even before the re-encounter. To function as an adaptive strategy in the wild, such prospective experience-induced behaviour should change flexibly in response to changing situations. We assessed flexibility of experience-induced oviposition site shift in two closely related species of spider mites, Tetranychus kanzawai and T. urticae, from the viewpoint of reducing future predation risk on their eggs. We found that: (i) individuals of T. kanzawai shifted oviposition site depending on the presence of conspecific eggs; (ii) after experiencing predation threat T. kanzawai females shifted oviposition site even in the absence of any current predation threat; (iii) this experience-induced shift of oviposition site was weakened in the presence of conspecific males; and (iv) experience-induced behaviour was retained for a shorter period in T. urticae than in T. kanzawai, possibly because the demand for learning may differ with regard to biological conditions encountered in the wild.

曾遭遇捕食者的个体在再次接触同类捕食者或其捕食线索（predation cues）时，通常会调整其避敌反应。近期研究显示，这类行为改变有时甚至会在再次遭遇前就已出现。为了在野外发挥适应性策略的功能，此类预期性经验诱导行为应当能够随环境变化灵活调整。我们从降低子代卵未来遭遇捕食风险的角度，在神泽氏叶螨（Tetranychus kanzawai）与二斑叶螨（T. urticae）这两个近缘叶螨（spider mites）物种中，评估了经验诱导的产卵位点转移的灵活性。本研究发现如下：（i）神泽氏叶螨个体的产卵位点会随同种卵的存在与否发生变化；（ii）经历捕食威胁后，即使当前无任何捕食威胁，神泽氏叶螨雌螨仍会发生产卵位点转移；（iii）当存在同种雄螨时，这类经验诱导的产卵位点转移会被减弱；（iv）二斑叶螨的经验诱导行为留存时长较神泽氏叶螨更短，这可能是因为不同物种在野外遭遇的生物学条件不同，其学习需求存在差异。