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10-Minute Presentation

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

10-min: P-IE, Ecology

Nutritional ecology of solitarious and gregarious Central American locusts, Schistocerca piceifrons, in Yucatán, Mexico

Sunday, November 10, 2024
3:18 PM – 3:30 PM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 129 B, PCC
Oral Presentation
Phenotypic plasticity is a key approach for organisms to thrive in variable and unpredictable environments and locust phase change is a striking example. Locusts are grasshoppers that shift from shy solitarious to gregarious phenotypes in response to high population density. These phenotypes contrast strikingly in behavior, color, and activity. Much research has compared these phase-related traits in lab colonies with locusts reared in isolated or crowded conditions but very few studies have measured expression of phase traits in wild solitarious and gregarious. We tested how phase affects the nutritional ecology of Central American Locusts, Schistocerca piceifrons, in Yucatán, Mexico. We measured locust carbohydrate and protein demands and their performance curves when confined to diets imbalanced in protein:carbohydrate ratios. We compared these nutritional demands and responses to the protein and carbohydrate contents of plants the populations were eating in their environment. This research was supported by the Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute, NSF Grant No. 2021795.