Several African termite species from different subfamilies and different habitats are sensitive to trail-active extracts or to naturally laid trails from other species. Using single-extract bioassays, it is shown that the response threshold for trail-following is nearly identical for all tested species (except forHodotermes mossambicus). However, when termite workers have a choice between trails from their own species and from other species, conspecific trail-following is exclusively observed. This phenomenon can be counteracted by dilution (1∶10) of the conspecific trail-pheromone extract. Tests of the trail activity of various synthetic alcohols show that among these, the highest sensitivity of termite workers is to (Z)-3-dodecen-1-ol. Based on our experimental data, we postulate that, in addition to a generally active trail-pheromone constituent (an unsaturated primary C12 alcohol) or a pool of chemically closely related alcohols, other species-specific components are present in termite trails.
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PLoS One
January 2025
Faculty of Science, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Not all corals are attached to the substrate; some taxa are solitary and free-living, allowing them to migrate into preferred habitats. However, the lifestyle of these mobile corals, including how they move and navigate for migration, remains largely obscure. This study investigates the specific biomechanics of Cycloseris cyclolites, a free-living coral species, during phototactic behaviour in response to blue and white light stimuli.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Biol Sci
January 2025
School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Recent widespread reductions in body size across species have been linked to increasing temperatures; simultaneous increases in wing length relative to body size have been broadly observed but remain unexplained. Size and shape may change independently of one another, or these morphological shifts may be linked, with body size mediating or directly driving the degree to which shape changes. Using hierarchical Bayesian models and a morphological time series of 27 366 specimens from five North American migratory passerine bird species, we tested the roles that climate and body size have played in shifting wing length allometry over four decades.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Evol
January 2025
Dynamic Macroecology/Land Change Science Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL Birmensdorf Switzerland.
High-Arctic environments are facing an elevated pace of warming and increasing human activities, making them more susceptible to the introduction and spread of alien species. We investigated the role of human disturbance in facilitating the spread of a native plant () in a high-Arctic natural environment close to Isfjord Radio station and along adjacent hiking trails at Kapp Linné, Svalbard. We reconstructed the spatial pattern of the arrival and spread of at Kapp Linné by combining historical records of the species occurrence (1928-2018) with a contemporary survey of the plant abundance along the main hiking trail (2023 survey) and tested the relative effects of altitude and proximity to hiking trails on the species density via a generalised linear model (GLM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcol Evol
January 2025
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara California USA.
Trade-offs between food acquisition and predator avoidance shape the landscape-scale movements of herbivores. These movements create landscape features, such as game trails, which are paths that animals use repeatedly to traverse the landscape. As such, these trails integrate behavioral trade-offs over space and time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPest Manag Sci
January 2025
Forest Ecology and Restoration Group (FORECO), Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.
Background: Biological control in integrated pest management (IPM) often overlooked avian predators until the emergence of the ecosystem services approach. Birds are now recognized as key regulators of pest populations in agroforestry landscapes due to their high mobility. The invasive yellow-legged hornet, introduced into Europe in 2004, threatens agriculture, beekeeping and native pollinators.
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