Protein deficiency lowers resistance of Mormon crickets to the pathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana.

Little is known about the effects of dietary macronutrients on the capacity of insects to ward off a fungal pathogen. Here we tested the hypothesis that Mormon crickets fed restricted protein diets have lower enzymatic assays of generalized immunity, slower rates of encapsulation of foreign bodies, and greater mortality from infection by Beauveria bassiana, a fungal pathogen. Beginning in the last nymphal instar, Mormon crickets were fed a high, intermediate, or low protein diet with correspondingly low, intermediate, or high carbohydrate proportions. After they eclosed to adult, we drew hemolymph, topically applied B. bassiana, maintained them on diet treatments, and measured mortality for 21 days. Mormon crickets fed high protein diets had higher prophenoloxidase titers, greater encapsulation response, and higher survivorship to Beauveria fungal infection than those on low protein diets. We replicated the study adding very high and very low protein diets to the treatments. A high protein diet increased phenoloxidase titers, and those fed the very high protein diet had more circulating prophenoloxidase. Mormon crickets fed the very low protein diet were the most susceptible to B. bassiana infection, but the more concentrated phenoloxidase and prophenoloxidase associated with the highest protein diets did not confer the greatest protection from the fungal pathogen as in the first replicate. We conclude that protein-restricted diets caused Mormon crickets to have lower phenoloxidase titers, slower encapsulation of foreign bodies, and greater mortality from B. bassiana infection than those fed high protein diets. These results support the nutrition-based dichotomy of migrating Mormon crickets, protein-deficient ones are more susceptible to pathogenic fungi whereas carbohydrate-deficient ones are more vulnerable to bacterial challenge.

Diet Drives the Collective Migrations and Affects the Immunity of Mormon Crickets and Locusts: A Comparison of These Potential Superspreaders of Disease.

Differential transmission of disease among individuals within a population or among species in a community can result in superspreaders, relatively rare individuals responsible for a large proportion of transmission events. Migrating Mormon crickets and nymphal locusts readily engage in cannibalistic attacks and necrophagy. Typically multiple individuals consume a cadaver, which fosters the spread of disease. Cannibalistic attacks result in aligned, coordinated movement of individuals in massive bands that march daily for weeks at a time. Coordinated movement reduces contact frequency, which not only reduces cannibalism but the risk of disease transmission. When crowded, Mormon crickets and locusts elevate their constitutive immunity, which further reduces the risk of disease transmission. Bands of Mormon crickets show a variety of macronutrient dietary deficiencies that determine whether they will be more susceptible to pathogenic bacteria or fungi. In some migratory bands, Mormon crickets seek carbohydrates and have less anti-bacterial activity. A lipid transport protein that functions in both fuelling migration and anti-bacterial activity may cause a trade-off between the two activities when carbohydrates are limited. In other migratory bands, Mormon crickets prefer protein over carbohydrates, indicating protein-deficiency. In these bands, the generalized immunity of Mormon crickets, measured as phenoloxidase, is compromised, and the insects are more susceptible to Beauveria bassiana fungal infection. In locusts, a high protein diet resulted in greater susceptibility to another entomopathogenic fungus, Metarhizium acridum, whereas in Mormon crickets, both phenoloxidase titers and immunity to M acridum increased with adult age. Color changes associated with death by either of these fungi diminishes cannibalism, but bands may cull infected or encounter cadavers too quickly to effectively reduce fungal transmission. As long as the insects show no signs of infection that ward off their conspecifics, then infected Mormon crickets and locusts in migratory bands could be superspreaders of disease. However, the diseases that they are most likely to harbor and amplify may depend on the dietary deficiencies exhibited by members of the band.

Unconventional lift-generating mechanisms in free-flying butterflies.

Flying insects generate forces that are too large to be accounted for by conventional steady-state aerodynamics. To investigate these mechanisms of force generation, we trained red admiral butterflies, Vanessa atalanta, to fly freely to and from artificial flowers in a wind tunnel, and used high-resolution, smoke-wire flow visualizations to obtain qualitative, high-speed digital images of the air flow around their wings. The images show that free-flying butterflies use a variety of unconventional aerodynamic mechanisms to generate force: wake capture, two different types of leading-edge vortex, active and inactive upstrokes, in addition to the use of rotational mechanisms and the Weis-Fogh 'clap-and-fling' mechanism. Free-flying butterflies often used different aerodynamic mechanisms in successive strokes. There seems to be no one 'key' to insect flight, instead insects rely on a wide array of aerodynamic mechanisms to take off, manoeuvre, maintain steady flight, and for landing.