Dataset Information

Successful escape of bombardier beetles from predator digestive systems.

ABSTRACT: Some prey animals can escape from the digestive systems of predators after being swallowed. To clarify the ecological factors that determine the success of such an escape, we investigated how the bombardier beetle Pheropsophus jessoensis escapes from two toad species, Bufo japonicus and Btorrenticola, under laboratory conditions. Pheropsophus jessoensis ejects a hot chemical spray from the tip of the abdomen when it is attacked. Although all toads swallowed the bombardier beetles, 43% of the toads vomited the beetles 12-107 min after swallowing them. All the vomited beetles were still alive and active. Our experiment showed that Pjessoensis ejected hot chemicals inside the toads, thereby forcing the toads to vomit. Large beetles escaped more frequently than small beetles, and small toads vomited the beetles more frequently than large toads. Our results demonstrate the importance of the prey-predator size relationship in the successful escape of prey from inside a predator.

SUBMITTER: Sugiura S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5830659 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Successful escape of bombardier beetles from predator digestive systems.

Sugiura Shinji S Sato Takuya T

Biology letters 20180201 2

Some prey animals can escape from the digestive systems of predators after being swallowed. To clarify the ecological factors that determine the success of such an escape, we investigated how the bombardier beetle Pheropsophus jessoensis escapes from two toad species, Bufo japonicus and Btorrenticola, under laboratory conditions. Pheropsophus jessoensis ejects a hot chemical spray from the tip of the abdomen when it is attacked. Although all toads swallowed the ...[more]

PMID: 29438051

Similar Datasets

Project description:Gut microbes play an important role in the biology and evolution of insects. Australian native dung beetles (Scarabaeinae) present an opportunity to study gut microbiota in an evolutionary context as they come from two distinct phylogenetic lineages and some species in each lineage have secondarily adapted to alternative or broader diets. In this study, we characterised the hindgut bacterial communities found in 21 species of dung beetles across two lineages using 16S rRNA sequencing. We found that gut microbial diversity was more dependent on host phylogeny and gut morphology than specific dietary preferences or environment. In particular, gut microbial diversity was highest in the endemic, flightless genus Cephalodesmius that feeds on a broad range of composted organic matter. The hindgut of Cephalodesmius harbours a highly conserved core set of bacteria suggesting that the bacteria are symbiotic. Symbiosis is supported by the persistence of the core microbiota across isolated beetle populations and between species in the genus. A co-evolutionary relationship is supported by the expansion of the hindgut to form a fermentation chamber and the fermentative nature of the core microbes. In contrast, Australian species of the widespread dung beetle genus Onthophagus, specialise on a single food resource such as dung or fungus, exhibit minimal food processing behaviour, have a short, narrow hindgut and a variable gut microbiota with relatively few core bacterial taxa. A conserved, complex gut microbiota is hypothesised to be unnecessary for this highly mobile genus.IMPORTANCE Dung beetles are a very important part of an ecosystem because of their role in the removal and decomposition of vertebrate dung. It has been suspected that symbiotic gut bacteria facilitate this role, a hypothesis that we have explored with high throughput barcoding. We found that differences in hindgut morphology had the greatest effect on the bacterial community composition. Species with a hindgut fermentation chamber harboured a distinctly different hindgut community compared to those species with a narrow, undifferentiated hindgut. Diet and phylogeny were also associated with differences in gut community. Further understanding of the relationships between dung beetles and their gut microbes will provide insights into the evolution of their behaviours and how gut communities contribute to their fitness.

Dataset Information

Successful escape of bombardier beetles from predator digestive systems.

Publications

Successful escape of bombardier beetles from predator digestive systems.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets