Search results for " foraging"
showing 10 items of 39 documents
The wild side of the New Nordic Cuisine
2021
The Edible Country il primo concreto tentativo di avvicinare il grande pubblico alla filosofia del foraging. Lo scopo quello di incoraggiare le persone a mangiare cibi pi sani e di produzione locale e contemporaneamente a conoscere e rispettare la natura, i suoi cicli, le sue risorse ma anche i suoi limiti. L’utilizzo nel cibo selvatico in cucina, che ha da sempre caratterizzato le economie di sussistenza o i momenti di carestia, assume un nuovo importante significato oggi pi che mai in tempi di crisi economiche e sanitarie. un’importante risorsa alimentare a impatto quasi nullo sul pianeta e il suo valore culturale ci insegna a rispettare gli equilibri dei nostri ecosistemi. Conosc…
Attraction of egg-killing parasitoids toward induced plant volatiles in a multi-herbivore context
2015
In response to insect herbivory, plants emit volatile organic compounds which may act as indirect plant defenses by attracting natural enemies of the attacking herbivore. In nature, plants are often attacked by multiple herbivores, but the majority of studies which have investigated indirect plant defenses to date have focused on the recruitment of different parasitoid species in a single-herbivore context. Here, we report our investigation on the attraction of egg parasitoids of lepidopteran hosts (Trichogramma brassicae and T. evanescens) toward plant volatiles induced by different insect herbivores in olfactometer bioassays. We used a system consisting of a native crucifer, Brassica nigr…
Nectar-Inhabiting Bacteria Affect Olfactory Responses of an Insect Parasitoid by Altering Nectar Odors
2022
AbstractFloral nectar is ubiquitously colonized by a variety of microorganisms among which yeasts and bacteria are the most common. Microorganisms inhabiting floral nectar can alter several nectar traits, including nectar odor by producing microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs). Evidence showing that mVOCs can affect the foraging behavior of insect pollinators is increasing in the literature, whereas the role of mVOCs in altering the foraging behavior of third-trophic level organisms such as insect parasitoids is largely overlooked. Parasitoids are frequent visitors of flowers and are well known to feed on nectar. In this study, we isolated bacteria inhabiting floral nectar of buckwhe…
Ground-level predation on artificial caterpillars indicates no enemy-free time for lepidopteran larvae
2017
Lepidoptera is one of the most diverse orders of insects, their larvae are very abundant in many habitats, and frequent prey of various predators. To decrease predation risk, caterpillars developed several means of defence, among them timing their activity to avoid predators (seeking enemy-free time). Although the enemy-free time hypothesis is often invoked to explain caterpillar behaviour, empirical evidence for it is scarce. We tested whether such enemy-free time exists in a temperate forest by comparing predation pressure on artificial caterpillars during day and night on the ground in forest fragments in Denmark. We found a high predation rate, 23.9% d(-1), and higher predation rate at …
Quantum planning for swarm robotics
2023
Computational resources of quantum computing can enhance robotic motion, decision making, and path planning. While the quantum paradigm is being applied to individual robots, its approach to swarms of simple and interacting robots remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we attempt to bridge the gap between swarm robotics and quantum computing, in the framework of a search and rescue mission. We focus on a decision-making and path-planning collective task. Thus, we present a quantum-based path-planning algorithm for a swarm of robots. Quantization enters position and reward information (measured as a robot’s proximity to the target) and path-planning decisions. Pairwise information-exchan…
Switching spatial scale reveals dominance-dependent social foraging tactics in a wild primate.
2017
When foraging in a social group, individuals are faced with the choice of sampling their environment directly or exploiting the discoveries of others. The evolutionary dynamics of this trade-off have been explored mathematically through the producer-scrounger game, which has highlighted socially exploitative behaviours as a major potential cost of group living. However, our understanding of the tight interplay that can exist between social dominance and scrounging behaviour is limited. To date, only two theoretical studies have explored this relationship systematically, demonstrating that because scrounging requires joining a competitor at a resource, it should become exclusive to high-rank…
Modeling sequential production: the migratory beekeeper case
2018
This paper formalizes a bio-economic model of migratory beekeeping activities, during the annual production cycle, so as to discern the optimal sequence of foraging sites for migratory beekeepers; it then proceeds to empirically verify the model via a case study. The model assumes that the apiary farm produces three marketable outputs under conditions of certainty with disjunctive resources at the sites. In particular, honey, commercial pollination services and nucleus colonies are produced sequentially at foraging sites throughout the year. The model determines a migratory beekeeperâs revenues, variable costs, gross income from each sequence of foraging sites under the constraint that th…
First Record of Eurasian Spoonbills Platalea leucorodia feeding on Branchiopoda in a temporary wetland
2020
The diet of the Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia is poorly documented with only the most common prey groups known, namely small fishes, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, molluscs, worms, leeches and plant material. Here, the first observations of three small crustaceans, Branchiopoda Triops cancriformis (Notostraca), Chirocephalus diaphanus (Anostraca), and Cyzicus tetracerus (Spinicaudata) are documented as prey of the Eurasian Spoonbill in a temporary wetland near the San Teodoro salt pan (Marsala, western Sicily). These observations provide a new insight into the foraging ecology of the species, showing its extreme opportunism in targeting small prey when feeding in a temporary we…
Chemical Ecology of Insect Parasitoids: Essential Elements for Developing Effective Biological Control Programmes
2013
Insect parasitoids can find their hosts in complex environments and reproduce through a series of behavioural steps which are regulated mainly by chemical cues, termed semiochemicals. According to functional criteria, stimuli can be classified into four main categories: (A) cues coming from the habitat, the host microhabitat or the food plant, (B) direct host‐related cues, (C) indirect host‐related cues, and (D) cues coming from the parasitoid itself. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in elucidating the semiochemicals used by parasitoids to locate their hosts. Several studies provided interesting prospective for manipulating foraging behaviour of parasitoids in order to i…
Behavioral response of the egg parasitoid Ooencyrtus telenomicida to host-related chemical cues in a tritrophic perspective
2010
The response of the generalist egg parasitoid Ooencyrtus telenomicida (Vassiliev) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) to host-related chemical cues from tomato plants, Solanum lycopersicum L., and adults of Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) was investigated in laboratory-based no-choice and paired-choice tests. In Y-tube olfactometer experiments, when female wasps were exposed to volatiles from plants in different conditions, they were attracted only to volatiles produced by N. viridula adult-infested tomato plants. When female wasps were exposed to adults of N. viridula, they were attracted to volatiles from virgin males, and, at a lower level, to volatiles from mated females in preov…