Influence of refuge availability on the oviposition strategy of anachoretic and non-anachoretic aphidophagous ladybirds
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Scymnus nubilus Mulsant and Coccinella undecimpunctata L. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are two generalist aphidophagous predators abundant in herbaceous habitats. C. undecimpuctata , a larger species, lays its eggs in uncovered clusters, whereas S. nubilus , a tiny species , lays its eggs singly and, possibly, in concealed sites. Reproductive strategies in ladybirds seem to be adaptive, allowing the co-occurrence of both predators, apparently without interfering with each other. The aim of this study was to characterize the following oviposition strategies in S. nubilus and C. undecimpunctata : daily fecundity, effect of available sites on females’ fecundity, and circadian rhythmicity of oviposition. We hypothesize that the single-egg-laying strategist (1) is more dependent on the availability of concealed sites to oviposit and (2) lays eggs closer to aphid colonies. We found that different levels of site concealability allows S. nubilus to increase fecundity. Contrary to C. undecimpunctata , in the absence of a suitable substrate to conceal its eggs, S. nubilus females refrain ovipositing. S. nubilus prefers to hide their eggs beneath prey carcasses while C. undecimpunctata is less selective concerning the oviposition sites. S. nubilus dilutes its fecundity effort through more oviposition sites and events, while C. undecimpunctata requires one event to lay its clusters. Our results showed that the smaller ladybird is more dependent than the larger one on habitat structural complexity to maximize its fitness and that laying a single hidden egg mainly during the scotophase confers a potential adaptive advantage to increase fitness.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".