Investigating movement in the laboratory: dispersal apparatus designs and the red flour beetle, T ribolium castaneum
Date
2017
Authors
Arnold, Pieter
Rafter, Michelle A.
Malekpour, Rokhsareh
Cassey, Phillip
Walter, Gimme H.
White, Craig
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Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
The natural dispersal of Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) has been emulatedin the laboratory for more than 50 years, using a simple dispersal apparatus. This has typically com-prised of a starting container (initial resource or patch) connected by tubing, which contains threadfor the animals to climb into a tube and hence to an end container. That is, beetles move to a newviable resource or patch from an inter-patch zone or non-viable habitat. We modified this basicapparatus design to test the effect of tubing length and tubing insertion angle on the dispersal rateand proportion of successful dispersers. We expected that the proportion of successful disperserswould be repeatable within each apparatus design, and that increasing tubing length and steepness ofthe insertion angle would reduce dispersal rate and success across apparatus designs. Dispersalincreased linearly through time, similarly so for both males and females. The design with the mostvertical tubing insertion angle had a lower proportion of successful dispersers. Tubing length alsohad a negative relationship with dispersal success (as judged by insects reaching the end container),but a significant reduction in dispersal success was only apparent between the shortest and longesttubing between containers. We suggest that locating and climbing the vertical section of string beforethey can enter the tubing between containers restricts dispersal and that at higher densities, insectsexhibit greater inclination to climb. This type of apparatus has flexible design tolerances and furtherpotential to study the dispersal of other small insect species that primarily use pedestrian locomotion
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Keywords
Coleoptera, disperser, emigration, immigration, patch, rate of spread, resident, Tenebrionidae
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Source
Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Type
Journal article
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Restricted until
2099-12-31
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