8 Behavioral Plasticity to Risk of Predation: Oviposition Site Selection by a Mosquito in Response to its Predators Leon Blaustein1, 2 and Douglas W. Whitman3 1Community Ecology Laboratory, Institute of Evolution, Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel. 2Center for Vector Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA. E-mail:
[email protected] 34120 Department of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, USA. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Oviposition habitat selection in response to risk of predation is an environmentally induced phenotypic plastic response. We suggest predator- prey characteristics for which such a response is more likely to evolve: high vulnerability of progeny to the predator; deposition of all eggs from a single reproductive event in a single site (i.e., inability to spread the risk spatially); few opportunities to reproduce (i.e., unable to spread the risk temporally); during habitat assessment by the gravid female, high predictability of future risk of predation for the period in which the progeny develop at the site; the predator is common but some sites are predator-free. We summarize work done on a particular system—the mosquito Culiseta longiareolata Macquart and its predators in pool habitats, a likely candidate system for oviposition habitat selection in response to risk of predation given these proposed characteristics. Adult C. longiareolata females can chemically detect various predatory backswimmer species (Notonectidae) but do not appear to chemically detect odonate and urodele larvae. Evidence suggests however that ovipositing females may detect other predators by nonchemical cues.