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Anim Cogn

Title:		Carbon dioxide narcosis modifies the patch leaving decision of foraging parasitoids
Author(s):		Louapre P; Pierre JS;
Address:		"Universite de Rennes, Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes Cedex, France. philippe.louapre@mail-univscience.com"
Journal Title:		Anim Cogn
Year:		2012
Volume:		20111022
Issue:		3
Page Number:		429 - 435
DOI:		10.1007/s10071-011-0464-8
ISSN/ISBN:		1435-9456 (Electronic) 1435-9448 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Gleaning information is a way for foragers to adjust their behavior in order to maximize their fitness. Information decreases the uncertainty about the environment and could help foragers to accurately estimate environmental characteristics. In a patchy resource, information sampled during previous patch visits is efficient only if it is retained in the memory and retrieved upon arrival in a new patch. In this study, we tested whether the braconid Asobara tabida, a parasitoid of Drosophila larvae, retains information gleaned on patch quality in the memory and adjusts its foraging behavior accordingly. Females were anesthetized with CO(2) after leaving a first patch containing a different number of hosts and were allowed to visit a second patch containing only kairomones. CO(2) is known to erase unconsolidated information from the memory. We show that in the absence of a short CO(2) narcosis, females responded according to their previous experience, whereas anesthetized females did not. The anesthetized females stayed a given time in the second patch irrespective of what they encountered before. CO(2) narcosis had no effect on the residence time of the non-experienced females in a patch containing hosts or only kairomones in comparison with the non-anesthetized females that had a previous foraging experience. We conclude that CO(2) narcosis erases the effect of the previous patch quality, perhaps due to a memory disruption. Direct information processing is likely to be involved in parasitoid decision making through retention of the information on the previous patch quality into a CO(2) sensitive memory"
Keywords:		Animals Carbon Dioxide/pharmacology Decision Making/drug effects Female Memory/drug effects Predatory Behavior/*drug effects Wasps/drug effects/*physiology;
Notes:		"MedlineLouapre, Philippe Pierre, Jean-Sebastien eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Germany 2011/11/02 Anim Cogn. 2012 May; 15(3):429-35. doi: 10.1007/s10071-011-0464-8. Epub 2011 Oct 22"