Université du Québec à Montréal
M.Sc. candidate
Supervisor: Pierre-Olivier Montiglio
François Dumont, Centre de recherche agroalimentaire de Mirabel
Start: 2021-09-13

Project

Habitat selection behavior by male and female tarnished plant bug
The tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris) is an agricultural pest that uses host plants for food and reproduction. Producers use plants around fields to attract and trap Lygus away from crop. However, we know little on female and male Lygus habitat selection and preference. Tarnished plant bugs are also distributed across North America, with 3 successive generations during the summer, generating several peaks of abundance throughout the season. This should generate 3 intraspecific competition peaks, with a greater effect on females than males, since they compete against both other females and males, while males only compete with each other for access to females. I want to know first if males and females vary in their effort to select their habitat. I’ll measure the distance covered by individuals in mesocosms offering 3 different plant hosts to quantify habitat selection effort. Males should cover more distance and revisit plants more often before settling. I also want to know if males and females differ in their preference for host-plant. I’ll conduct a cafeteria experiment offering 3 plants to individuals. Males should spend less time on plants than females before choosing one, since they should cover more distance. Finally, I want to verify if males and females vary in their preferred conspecific density. I’ll place individuals on plants populated with varying number of females to estimate the giving up density of individuals. Males should prefer higher densities, since they are attracted to females for mating.

Keywords

Sélection d'habitat, préférence d'habitat, densité de conspécifiques, Lygus lineolaris, habitat selection, habitat preference, conspecific density