Foraging at night under artificial light: consequences on reproductive senescence and lifetime reproductive success for a diurnal insect

Gomes, E.; Lemaitre, J.-F.; Rodriguez-Rada, V.; Debias, F.; Desouhant, E.; Amat, I.

doi:10.1101/2023.03.02.530765

Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.03.02.530765

Foraging at night under artificial light: consequences on reproductive senescence and lifetime reproductive success for a diurnal insect

Gomes, E.·Lemaitre, J.-F.·Rodriguez-Rada, V.·Debias, F.·Desouhant, E.·Amat, I.

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

O_LIThe increasing use of artificial light at night (ALAN) is currently a major anthropogenic disturbance, with largely unappreciated eco-evolutionary consequences for nocturnal but also diurnal organisms. It has been hypothesized that light pollution could create new opportunities for the latter to forage and reproduce at night, which is called the night-light niche, with fitness consequences still scarcely explored. C_LIO_LIWe exposed diurnal parasitoid wasps (Venturia canescens) to one of three light-at-night conditions: control (0 lux), low intensity (0.7 lux) or high intensity (20 lux) throughout their lives. We then monitored changes in both behavioural and life-history traits, namely daytime and nighttime feeding and egg-laying activity, reproductive senescence, lifespan and lifetime reproductive success. C_LIO_LILight pollution influenced the nighttime activity of wasps. The proportion of wasps feeding and laying eggs at night increased, and we also detected a tendency for a higher nighttime reproductive success under a high intensity of light pollution. Surprisingly, high intensity of light pollution also increased the wasps lifespan. Such changes did not affect the lifetime reproductive success of the wasps, but influenced the distribution of ovipositions between day and night. C_LIO_LIReproductive senescence occurs in V. canescens, evidenced by the linear decline in daily reproductive success with age regardless of the light condition. ALAN conditions, in interaction with mother age, affected developmental time in offspring, highlighting an effect on reproductive senescence. C_LIO_LIWe demonstrated that light pollution induced the use of the night-light niche in a diurnal insect, with a shift in the distribution of egg-laying events between day and night. While we did not observe strong consequences on individual fitness, such changes in the dynamics of parasitism behaviour may nevertheless have major consequences for population dynamics, especially in natural conditions. C_LI

Explore related subjects

animal behavior and cognition Preprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Gomes, E., Lemaitre, J.-F., Rodriguez-Rada, V., Debias, F., Desouhant, E., Amat, I.. 2023-03-02. Foraging at night under artificial light: consequences on reproductive senescence and lifetime reproductive success for a diurnal insect. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.02.530765

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Causal Multiscale Modeling of Ocular FLASH Electroretinography: Model Development, Experimental Fitting, and Spin-Glass--Percolation Predictions

\textbf{Purpose:} To develop a causal multiscale model of retinal electroretinography (ERG) after ocular ultrahigh-dose-rate (FLASH) and conventional-dose-rate (CONV) irradiation, evaluate the framework against published ocular ERG data, and derive prospective dose-response predictions for future validation. \textbf{Methods:} The retina was coarse-grained into $N=200$ functional modules. Local rate equations were formulated as Hodgkin--Huxley-inspired conductance-balance/RC reductions of retinal ion-channel and synaptic pathways. Radiation generated an injury field that altered phototransduction, a-wave and b-wave dynamics and, in the network extension, inter-module coupling and bond survival. A reduced amplitude benchmark and nested M0/M1/M2 causal models were evaluated. \textbf{Results:} The reduced benchmark achieved $R^2=0.9721$ and RMSE $=11.94~\mu$V. M0, M1, and M2 yielded $R^2=0.8546$, 0.8559, and 0.8560, respectively, indicating limited independent identifiability of the network terms from amplitude data alone. Under an exploratory 50\% retained-gain criterion, the reduced benchmark predicted a-wave preservation thresholds of 28.6 Gy for FLASH and 23.7 Gy for CONV, and b-wave thresholds of 29.2 Gy and 24.1 Gy, respectively, corresponding to a model-based functional dose-modifying factor (DMF) of 1.21. \textbf{Conclusion:} The ERG amplitude data support the causal radiation-injury-to-ERG framework, while additional observables will be needed to distinguish the predicted collective-network contributions. The model also provides quantitative dose targets for prospective studies of the FLASH retinal-preservation window and a framework for testing how local retinal injury may propagate into collective dysfunction.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2026

Neonatal personality is associated with sex-specific developmental trajectories in a wild mammal

Animal personality, defined as consistent among-individual differences in behaviour, is an important source of phenotypic variation, but its developmental origins and associations with subsequent development remain poorly understood. We measured neonatal personalities, early-life growth, and yearling male antler length in wild fallow deer (Dama dama). Using eight years of data, we estimated repeatability and among-individual correlations among neonatal personalities and growth and applied structural equation modelling to examine associations with yearling male morphology. Heart rate and behavioural reaction measures showed repeatable among-individual variation, demonstrating that stable differences were detectable shortly after birth. Behavioural reaction was negatively correlated with growth in males but not in females. Heart rate was not associated with growth in either sex. In males, the effects of neonatal behavioural reactivity persisted beyond early life: more behaviourally reactive neonates had shorter antlers as yearlings, indirectly through reduced early-life growth. These findings show that stable among-individual differences emerge during the neonatal period and are associated with sex-specific developmental trajectories.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2026

The role of familiarity in grouping decisions of Trinidadian guppies

Social grouping is widely observed in numerous taxa, providing individuals with a variety of benefits including efficient information exchange and predator protection. However, grouping can also carry costs such as increased competition for resources, which means that individuals must often make decisions regarding joining or leaving a group. These decisions to leave or stay might in turn depend on prior experience with potential groupmates. Past work has shown that many fish distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics and use these distinctions in their grouping choices. Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), well known for their diversity in shoaling preferences, are an excellent system in which to investigate the role of familiarity in grouping decisions. We examined preferences for familiar individuals following both a 15-day and 55-day cohabitation period in two different guppy populations. Utilizing two binary-choice designs, we found no evidence for a familiarity preference in either population, despite observing a high preference to group with conspecifics in both populations. These results suggest that various contextual- and population-level differences may impact familiarity preferences, in turn contributing to the growing body of work on the evolution of social organization and grouping decisions in teleost species and beyond.

animal behavior and cognition↗