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1 August 2014 Sex-Specific Interactions of Microbial Symbioses on Cricket Dietary Selection
Ryan B. Schmid, R. Michael Lehman, Jonathan G. Lundgren
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Abstract

The nutrients found in prey and nonprey foods, and relative digestibility of these foods, has a major influence on diet selection by omnivorous insects. Many insects have developed symbiotic relationships with gut bacteria to help with extracting nutrition from nonprey diets. Gryllus pennsylvanicus (Burmeister) (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) was assigned to one of two treatment groups, antibiotic-treated and nonantibiotic-treated, and consumption of seeds (nonprey) and eggs (prey) were measured. Male crickets administered antibiotics consumed more seeds and greater seed weight, while antibiotic-fed female crickets consumed fewer seeds and less seed weight, relative to the untreated male and female crickets, respectively. Both male and female antibiotic-treated crickets consumed similar weight of eggs as nonantibiotic-treated male and female crickets, respectively. These results provide evidence that gut symbionts influence diet selection of male and female G. pennsylvanicus differently. This sex-specific dietary selection may be because of the fact that male and female crickets have different nutritional requirements.

Ryan B. Schmid, R. Michael Lehman, and Jonathan G. Lundgren "Sex-Specific Interactions of Microbial Symbioses on Cricket Dietary Selection," Environmental Entomology 43(4), 896-902, (1 August 2014). https://doi.org/10.1603/EN13311
Received: 1 November 2013; Accepted: 1 April 2014; Published: 1 August 2014
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KEYWORDS
bacteria
Chenopodium album
Ephestia kuehniella
Gryllus pennsylvanicus
nutrition
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