Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host Plants

In a symbiosis, each participant gains more fitness benefits than is paid in maintenance costs for the symbiosis. The mugwort aphid, Macrosiphoniella yomogicola, is ant-associated, and the host mugwort Artemisia montana is a genet-producing plant that has clonal aboveground shoots. M. yomogicola inf...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yuuka Murakami, Hisashi Kawai, Akane Shindo, Eisuke Hasegawa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-01-01
Series:Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/1087823
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832553717698658304
author Yuuka Murakami
Hisashi Kawai
Akane Shindo
Eisuke Hasegawa
author_facet Yuuka Murakami
Hisashi Kawai
Akane Shindo
Eisuke Hasegawa
author_sort Yuuka Murakami
collection DOAJ
description In a symbiosis, each participant gains more fitness benefits than is paid in maintenance costs for the symbiosis. The mugwort aphid, Macrosiphoniella yomogicola, is ant-associated, and the host mugwort Artemisia montana is a genet-producing plant that has clonal aboveground shoots. M. yomogicola infests most A. montana shoots from spring to midsummer, and attending ants also repel leaf-eaters of the host plant. However, most aphid colonies become extinct after budding of A. montana inflorescence after early August. A few surviving aphid colonies (1∼3 per genet) produce sexuparae in mid-October. The shoots on which the sexuparae emerged lost most of their fitness because the aphids strongly suppress budding and growth of inflorescence. However, as the shoots are genetic clones of each other, the appearance of stem mothers in the next spring may result in early spreading of the aphids and attending ants to clonal shoots, which would protect the host from leaf-eaters. Here, we show that all shoots on a genet with stem mothers are occupied by aphids and ants much faster than those on a genet without stem mothers. The attending ants repel leaf-eaters to unimportant leaves for the host. Our results suggest that, as the shoots of a genet are all clones, sustaining the aphids on a few shoots may be beneficial to a genet as a whole through kin selection.
format Article
id doaj-art-eb2a9c2a5af64c4eafa6a3f884817201
institution Kabale University
issn 1687-7438
language English
publishDate 2022-01-01
publisher Wiley
record_format Article
series Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
spelling doaj-art-eb2a9c2a5af64c4eafa6a3f8848172012025-02-03T05:53:28ZengWileyPsyche: A Journal of Entomology1687-74382022-01-01202210.1155/2022/1087823Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host PlantsYuuka Murakami0Hisashi Kawai1Akane Shindo2Eisuke Hasegawa3Laboratory of Animal EcologyLaboratory of Animal EcologyLaboratory of Animal EcologyLaboratory of Animal EcologyIn a symbiosis, each participant gains more fitness benefits than is paid in maintenance costs for the symbiosis. The mugwort aphid, Macrosiphoniella yomogicola, is ant-associated, and the host mugwort Artemisia montana is a genet-producing plant that has clonal aboveground shoots. M. yomogicola infests most A. montana shoots from spring to midsummer, and attending ants also repel leaf-eaters of the host plant. However, most aphid colonies become extinct after budding of A. montana inflorescence after early August. A few surviving aphid colonies (1∼3 per genet) produce sexuparae in mid-October. The shoots on which the sexuparae emerged lost most of their fitness because the aphids strongly suppress budding and growth of inflorescence. However, as the shoots are genetic clones of each other, the appearance of stem mothers in the next spring may result in early spreading of the aphids and attending ants to clonal shoots, which would protect the host from leaf-eaters. Here, we show that all shoots on a genet with stem mothers are occupied by aphids and ants much faster than those on a genet without stem mothers. The attending ants repel leaf-eaters to unimportant leaves for the host. Our results suggest that, as the shoots of a genet are all clones, sustaining the aphids on a few shoots may be beneficial to a genet as a whole through kin selection.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/1087823
spellingShingle Yuuka Murakami
Hisashi Kawai
Akane Shindo
Eisuke Hasegawa
Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host Plants
Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
title Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host Plants
title_full Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host Plants
title_fullStr Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host Plants
title_full_unstemmed Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host Plants
title_short Defense against Feeding by Spring Aphid Parasitism in the Upper Leaf Parts of Host Plants
title_sort defense against feeding by spring aphid parasitism in the upper leaf parts of host plants
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/1087823
work_keys_str_mv AT yuukamurakami defenseagainstfeedingbyspringaphidparasitismintheupperleafpartsofhostplants
AT hisashikawai defenseagainstfeedingbyspringaphidparasitismintheupperleafpartsofhostplants
AT akaneshindo defenseagainstfeedingbyspringaphidparasitismintheupperleafpartsofhostplants
AT eisukehasegawa defenseagainstfeedingbyspringaphidparasitismintheupperleafpartsofhostplants