ArticleJournal of chemical ecology2016
Chemical Defense as a Condition-Dependent Trait in Harvestmen.
Article in Journal of chemical ecology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Chemical Secretion Use Varies Among Species but Lacks a Straightforward Relationship With Other Defenses in Neotropical Opiliones.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Habituation to a predatory stimulus in a harvester (Arachnida, Opiliones).Animal cognition · 2024Article
- De novo biosynthesis of simple aromatic compounds by an arthropod (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- The cost of chemical defence: the impact of toxin depletion on growth and behaviour of cane toads ( Rhinella marina).Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The expression of costly traits often depends on the amount of food available to the individuals. Chemical defenses are costly, thus their production should be condition-dependent. Here, we tested the hypothesis that an increase in food availability and an acetate-supplemented diet will increase the production of chemical defenses by the harvestman Magnispina neptunus, which releases alkylated benzoquinones biosynthesized using acetate as a precursor. We manipulated the diet of the individuals and created four experimental groups: well-fed with acetate, well-fed without acetate, poorly-fed with acetate, and poorly-fed without acetate. Well-fed individuals produced secretions with higher mass and concentration of benzoquinones than poorly-fed individuals, but we detected no significant effect of the acetate supplement. Thus, the production of benzoquinones is condition-dependent, and even short periods of dietary restriction may make individuals more vulnerable to predators, imposing fitness consequences to chemically-protected arthropods that biosynthesize their own defensive compounds.
Indexed as
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.