A comprehensive and cost-effective approach for investigating passive dispersal in minute invertebrates with case studies of phytophagous eriophyid mites.

Dispersal is a fundamental biological process that operates at different temporal and spatial scales with consequences for individual fitness, population dynamics, population genetics, and species distributions. Studying this process is particularly challenging when the focus is on microscopic organisms that disperse passively, whilst controlling neither the transience nor the settlement phase of their movement. In this work we propose a comprehensive approach for studying passive dispersal of microscopic invertebrates and demonstrate it using wind and phoretic vectors. The protocol includes the construction of versatile, modifiable dispersal tunnels as well as a theoretical framework quantifying the movement of species via wind or vectors, and a hierarchical Bayesian approach appropriate to the structure of the dispersal data. The tunnels were used to investigate the three stages of dispersal (viz., departure, transience, and settlement) of two species of minute, phytophagous eriophyid mites Aceria tosichella and Abacarus hystrix. The proposed devices are inexpensive and easy to construct from readily sourced materials. Possible modifications enable studies of a wide range of mite species and facilitate manipulation of dispersal factors, thus opening a new important area of ecological study for many heretofore understudied species.

Genetics of lineage diversification and the evolution of host usage in the economically important wheat curl mite, Aceria tosichella Keifer, 1969.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the mechanisms that underlie the diversification of herbivores through interactions with their hosts is important for their diversity assessment and identification of expansion events, particularly in a human-altered world where evolutionary processes can be exacerbated. We studied patterns of host usage and genetic structure in the wheat curl mite complex (WCM), Aceria tosichella, a major pest of the world's grain industry, to identify the factors behind its extensive diversification. RESULTS: We expanded on previous phylogenetic research, demonstrating deep lineage diversification within the taxon, a complex of distinctive host specialist and generalist lineages more diverse than previously assumed. Time-calibrated phylogenetic reconstruction inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence data suggests that lineage diversification pre-dates the influence of agricultural practices, and lineages started to radiate in the mid Miocene when major radiations of C4 grasses is known to have occurred. Furthermore, we demonstrated that host specificity is not phylogenetically constrained, while host generalization appears to be a more derived trait coinciding with the expansion of the world's grasslands. Demographic history of specialist lineages have been more stable when compared to generalists, and their expansion pre-dated all generalist lineages. The lack of host-associated genetic structure of generalists indicates gene flow between mite populations from different hosts. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses demonstrated that WCM is an unexpectedly diverse complex of genetic lineages and its differentiation is likely associated with the time of diversification and expansion of its hosts. Signatures of demographic histories and expansion of generalists are consistent with the observed proliferation of the globally most common lineages. The apparent lack of constrains on host use, coupled with a high colonization potential, hinders mite management, which may be further compromised by host range expansion. This study provides a significant contribution to the growing literature on host-association and diversification in herbivorous invertebrates.

Behavioural responses to potential dispersal cues in two economically important species of cereal-feeding eriophyid mites.

Passively dispersing organisms should optimise the time and direction of dispersal by employing behaviours that increase their probability of being successfully transported by dispersal agents. We rigorously tested whether two agriculturally important passively-dispersing eriophyoid species, wheat curl mite (WCM) and cereal rust mite (CRM), display behaviours indicating their readiness to depart from current host plants in the presence of potential dispersal cues: wind, an insect vector and presence of a fresh plant. Contrary to our expectations, we found that both species decreased their general activity in the presence of wind. When exposed to wind, WCM (but not CRM) significantly increased behaviour that has previously been considered to facilitate dispersal (in this case, standing vertically). Our study provides the first sound test of the function of what have been interpreted as dispersal-related behaviours of eriophyid mites. The low proportion of WCM exhibiting dispersal behaviour suggests there may be predisposed dispersers and residents in the population. Moreover, we found that WCM was generally more active than CRM, which is likely a contributing factor to its high invasive potential.

Predation-related costs and benefits of conspecific attraction in songbirds--an agent-based approach.

Songbirds that follow a conspecific attraction strategy in the habitat selection process prefer to settle in habitat patches already occupied by other individuals. This largely affects the patterns of their spatio-temporal distribution and leads to clustered breeding. Although making informed settlement decisions is expected to be beneficial for individuals, such territory clusters may potentially provide additional fitness benefits (e.g., through the dilution effect) or costs (e.g., possibly facilitating nest localization if predators respond functionally to prey distribution). Thus, we hypothesized that the fitness consequences of following a conspecific attraction strategy may largely depend on the composition of the predator community. We developed an agent-based model in which we simulated the settling behavior of birds that use a conspecific attraction strategy and breed in a multi-predator landscape with predators that exhibited different foraging strategies. Moreover, we investigated whether Bayesian updating of prior settlement decisions according to the perceived predation risk may improve the fitness of birds that rely on conspecific cues. Our results provide evidence that the fitness consequences of conspecific attraction are predation-related. We found that in landscapes dominated by predators able to respond functionally to prey distribution, clustered breeding led to fitness costs. However, this cost could be reduced if birds performed Bayesian updating of prior settlement decisions and perceived nesting with too many neighbors as a threat. Our results did not support the hypothesis that in landscapes dominated by incidental predators, clustered breeding as a byproduct of conspecific attraction provides fitness benefits through the dilution effect. We suggest that this may be due to the spatial scale of songbirds' aggregative behavior. In general, we provide evidence that when considering the fitness consequences of conspecific attraction for songbirds, one should expect a trade-off between the benefits of making informed decisions and the costs of clustering.