Journal article

Publication year: 1985

Pages: 229-235

Journal: Oecologia

Volume number: 65

Issue number: 2

ISSN: 0029-8549

eISSN: 1432-1939

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379222

Publisher: Springer

Abstract: 
Individuals of the collembolan species T. flavescens from a beech wood on limestone near Goettingen (West Germany) were fed with 14C-labeled algae in the laboratory. On an average, T. flavescens exchanged almost all of its endogenous C after 3.4 molts. In periods of starvation the interval between 3 ecdyses increased from 5.2-6.1 days (17.degree. C). The assimilation efficiency was determined in 3 independent ways (C use of different algal components; A = C - FU; C = P + R + FU, A = P + R): it ranged from 0.34-0.40 (converted to energy values 0.30-0.45). It could be raised in phases of high mobility and in periods of food shortage by lowering the gut passage rate. The decrease in feeding activity (demonstrated by gut contents analyses) in case of a deterioration of the food quality and the food availability can be partly compensated in this way. For individuals which did not reproduce, the ratio of production to assimilation was 0.24 (converted to energy values 0.31). T. flavescens showed an increased body growth in connection with reaching sexual maturity. Specific demands of nutritive substances in periods of physiological changes could possibly be compensated by a more efficient resource use as well as by differences in resource allocation. The studied population of T. flavescens was compared both with that of a Danish beech forest and general data from the literature. The production of few eggs rich in energy, the high weight of newly hatched individuals, the high growth as well as the storage of C connected with egg production, the comparatively low respiration metabolism and the high amount of energy invested in search for food have to be regarded as an adaptation to the habitat. According to conservative estimates, climbing individuals of this species consume 0.83 g of the algal dry mass growing on 1 beech tree during 1 summer. T. flavescens mainly uses the ethanol-soluble components of the algae.

Harvard Citation style: Wolters, V. (1985) Resource allocation in Tomocerus flavescens (Insecta, Collembola): a study with C-14-labelled food, Oecologia, 65(2), pp. 229-235. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379222

APA Citation style: Wolters, V. (1985). Resource allocation in Tomocerus flavescens (Insecta, Collembola): a study with C-14-labelled food. Oecologia. 65(2), 229-235. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379222