TY - JOUR

T1 - Do prey shape, time of day, and plant trichomes affect the predation rate on plasticine prey in tropical rainforests?

AU - Weissflog, Anita

AU - Markesteijn, Lars

AU - Aiello, Annette

AU - Healey, John

AU - Geipel, Inga

N1 - European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Grant Number: 663830 Llywodraeth Cymru. Grant Number: NRN-LCEE Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Grant Numbers: BEAGAL18/00029, BGP18/00189 Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/L002604/1 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Grant Numbers: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Short-term Fellowship Coalbourn Charitable Trust

PY - 2022/9/22

Y1 - 2022/9/22

N2 - Predation can effectively limit insect herbivores with cascading effects on plant community composition and diversity of tropical rainforests. Assessing variation in predation is therefore important to understand the mechanisms structuring complex rainforest ecosystems. Variation in predation with time of day may provide herbivores with temporal enemy-free space. Trichomes (plant hairs) may provide spatial enemy-free space by increasing climbing resistance for walking arthropod predators and by scattering bat echolocation calls. Artificial model prey is commonly used to measure predation pressure on insect herbivores. Whether model prey shape is sufficient to deceive predators and whether attacks represent actual predation however remain unresolved. We used artificial, plasticine prey to assess temporal and spatial variation in predation in two Panamanian rainforests and tested whether model prey shape is as important for prey recognition by predators as often assumed. We assessed the effect of prey shape and size, time of day, and trichomes on predation by comparing attacks on caterpillar- and humanoid-shaped figurines. We find higher nocturnal than diurnal predation in one but not the other forest, suggesting that herbivores may benefit from enemy-free space during the day in some forests. We find no evidence for an effect of trichomes on predation in the two plant species tested. Equal attack numbers on caterpillar- and humanoid-shaped objects challenge the idea that the visual resemblance of model prey alone is sufficient to deceive predators. We conclude that attacks on model prey represent a variety of responses to novel objects (e.g. exploration, aggression, possibly predation) and urge caution when interpreting their results.

AB - Predation can effectively limit insect herbivores with cascading effects on plant community composition and diversity of tropical rainforests. Assessing variation in predation is therefore important to understand the mechanisms structuring complex rainforest ecosystems. Variation in predation with time of day may provide herbivores with temporal enemy-free space. Trichomes (plant hairs) may provide spatial enemy-free space by increasing climbing resistance for walking arthropod predators and by scattering bat echolocation calls. Artificial model prey is commonly used to measure predation pressure on insect herbivores. Whether model prey shape is sufficient to deceive predators and whether attacks represent actual predation however remain unresolved. We used artificial, plasticine prey to assess temporal and spatial variation in predation in two Panamanian rainforests and tested whether model prey shape is as important for prey recognition by predators as often assumed. We assessed the effect of prey shape and size, time of day, and trichomes on predation by comparing attacks on caterpillar- and humanoid-shaped figurines. We find higher nocturnal than diurnal predation in one but not the other forest, suggesting that herbivores may benefit from enemy-free space during the day in some forests. We find no evidence for an effect of trichomes on predation in the two plant species tested. Equal attack numbers on caterpillar- and humanoid-shaped objects challenge the idea that the visual resemblance of model prey alone is sufficient to deceive predators. We conclude that attacks on model prey represent a variety of responses to novel objects (e.g. exploration, aggression, possibly predation) and urge caution when interpreting their results.

KW - enemy-free space

KW - insects

KW - multitrophic

KW - Panama

KW - predation

KW - Predator-prey interactions

KW - prey shape

KW - trichomes

U2 - 10.1111/btp.13150

DO - 10.1111/btp.13150

M3 - Article

VL - 54

SP - 1259

EP - 1269

JO - Biotropica

JF - Biotropica

SN - 0006-3606

IS - 5

ER -