Between predators and parasitoids: complex interactions among shelter traits, predation, and parasitism in a shelter-building caterpillar community

Shelter building is widespread in the animal world and such shelters often influence the success of their builders. Shelters built by caterpillars influence the likelihood of attacks by natural enemies, but how particular shelter traits influence caterpillar survival is not known. Furthermore, the differential effects of certain shelter traits on some natural enemies, such as predators, may lead to “enemy-free space” for other natural enemies (parasitoids). The parasitoid enemy-free space hypothesis has not been directly tested for shelter-building caterpillars.
To understand how shelter traits influence caterpillar survival, shelter traits, predation, and parasitism were measured simultaneously for 24 caterpillar morphospecies (1465 caterpillars) in a tropical dry forest and analyzed in a phylogenetic context.
Shelter type, shelter openness, and whether shelters accumulated frass had different amounts of phylogenetic signal, with frass accumulation displaying the most and shelte...

庇护所构筑行为在动物界广泛存在，此类庇护所往往会影响构筑者的生存适配成效。毛虫构筑的庇护所会影响其遭遇天敌攻击的概率，但目前学界尚未明确特定庇护所性状如何影响毛虫的存活情况。此外，部分庇护所性状对部分天敌（如捕食性天敌）的差异化影响，可能为其他天敌类群（如寄生性天敌）营造出“天敌回避空间（enemy-free space）”。针对筑庇护所毛虫的寄生性天敌回避空间假说，尚未得到直接验证。
为阐明庇护所性状如何影响毛虫存活，研究团队在热带干旱森林中，同步测定了24个形态种毛虫（共计1465头幼虫）的庇护所性状、捕食压力与寄生压力，并在系统发育框架下开展分析。
庇护所类型、庇护所开放度以及庇护所是否积累粪粒，三者的系统发育信号强度存在差异，其中粪粒积累的系统发育信号最为显著，而庇护所...