January
14, 2019, University of Exeter
Short-lived
wild insects "get old—losing some of their physical abilities—before they
die, new research shows.
Few
studies have examined whether insects such as field crickets—whose adult life lasts
a few weeks—experience "ageing" in the sense of physical decline in
nature.
Insects
are used to study ageing in laboratories, but it wasn't clear whether they only
reach "old age" because they are protected from a harsh natural
environment.
"Just
like humans, crickets get old," said lead author Dr. Rolando
Rodríguez-Muñoz, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the University
of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
"Though
we didn't find evidence of 'live fast, die young' in this species, those that
put more energy into reproduction early in life showed some signs of faster
decline as they aged."
University
of Exeter researchers used a network of more than 130 video cameras to
study every hour of the lives of a population of wild crickets in a Spanish
meadow.
They
monitored reproductive effort, ageing and survival over a ten-year period.
They
found no evidence of a "trade-off" between reproductive effort
in early life (measured
by emergence date, calling, searching and winning fights) and survival.
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