Don’t leave the past behind: larval experience shapes pupal antipredator response in Aedes aegypti

Kanika Rawat, Akshaye Anand Bhambore and Kavita Isvaran

Behavioral Ecology, 2025, vol. 36, issue 2, 708-716

Abstract: Animals may use predation-risk experiences to improve their future antipredator behavior, thereby decreasing their risk of mortality through predation. Despite the fitness benefits, such behavioral carryovers of predation past may not be common in species with complex life cycles. In these species, each life stage is morphologically and functionally distinct, and might be expected to evolve only to respond to the current threat level. In addition, major physiological changes might hamper behavioral carryover between stages, especially in holometabolous insects, where extensive tissue remodeling occurs between stages. We therefore investigated behavioral carryover in the holometabolous mosquito, Aedes aegypti. In a 2 × 2 experiment, we tested if the predation risk experienced by larvae (present/absent) carries over to affect how pupae behave in the presence or absence of predation cues. We manipulated the risk of predation experienced by larvae and investigated its influence on pupal antipredator behaviors. Pupae responded to the current presence or absence of predation cues by changing several components of their diving behavior, but how they responded depended on their experience of predators. We, therefore, found behavioral carryover from the larval to the pupal stage, which was context-specific. The carryover was detectable under normal resource-limited conditions but not when food was abundant. Our study underscores the role of predation in the evolution of complex life cycles, emphasizing the significance of early experiences in influencing behavioral traits in subsequent life stages.

Keywords: Aedes aegypti; antipredator behavior; behavioral carryover; complex life cycle; predation-risk experience; pupa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/araf001 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:36:y:2025:i:2:p:708-716.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().