Effects of soil preparation, food availability, and temperature on survival of Agriotes obscurus (Coleoptera: Elateridae) larvae in storage

AbstractField collected wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae) intended for laboratory studies often die during storage from Metarhizium Sorokin (Clavicipitaceae) infection and other causes. To determine optimal storage conditions for Agriotes obscurus (Linnaeus), freshly collected larvae were stored in regular and sterilised soil, with and without access to food (potato slices), at 12 °C and 16 °C, for six months to determine which conditions resulted in the lowest wireworm mortality. Survival was highest when wireworms were stored in sterilised soil, at 12 °C, in the absence of food. Food availability increased wireworm mortality from Metarhizium infection and other causes, but decreased the number of missing wireworms. Wireworm weight change during the study was highest in treatments where wireworms had access to food. The expected effect of food deprivation on wireworm energetic state and immune response are discussed in context with these findings.

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Effect of food availability on the response of planktonic rotifers to a toxic strain of the cyanobacterium Anabaena flos-aquae

Limnology and Oceanography ◽

10.4319/lo.1996.41.7.1565 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 41 (7) ◽

pp. 1565-1572 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

John J. Gilbert

Keyword(s):

Food Availability ◽

Cyanobacterium Anabaena ◽

Effect Of Food ◽

Planktonic Rotifers

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Daily changes in food availability, but not long-term unpredictability, determine daily torpor-bout occurrences and frequency in stripe-faced dunnarts (Sminthopsis macroura)

Australian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1071/zo14058 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 63 (1) ◽

pp. 12 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alexandra M. Leslie ◽

Mathew Stewart ◽

Elizabeth Price ◽

Adam J. Munn

Keyword(s):

Food Availability ◽

Control Period ◽

Daily Torpor ◽

Torpor Bout ◽

Effect Of Food ◽

Rapid Adjustment ◽

Sminthopsis Macroura ◽

Ad Libitum ◽

Ad Libitum Intake ◽

Ad Libitum Feeding

Daily torpor, a short-term reduction in body temperature and metabolism, is an energy-saving strategy that has been interpreted as an adaptation to unpredictable resource availability. However, the effect of food-supply variability on torpor, separately from consistent food restriction, remains largely unexamined. In this study, we investigated the effect of unpredictable food availability on torpor in stripe-faced dunnarts (Sminthopsis macroura). After a control period of ad libitum feeding, dunnarts were offered 65% of their average daily ad libitum intake over 31 days, either as a constant restriction (i.e. as equal amount of food offered each day) or as an unpredictable schedule of feed offered, varied daily as 0%, 30%, 60%, 100% or 130% of ad libitum. Both feeding groups had increased torpor-bout occurrences (as a proportion of all dunnarts on a given day) and torpor-bout frequency (average number of bouts each day) when on a restricted diet compared with ad libitum feeding, but torpor frequency did not differ between the consistently restricted and unpredictably restricted groups. Most importantly, torpor occurrence and daily bout frequency by the unpredictably restricted group appeared to change in direct association with the amount of food offered on each day; torpor frequency was higher on days of low food availability. Our data do not support the interpretation that torpor is a response to unpredictable food availability per se, but rather that torpor allowed a rapid adjustment of energy expenditure to manage daily fluctuations in food availability.

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