Friday, April 9, 2010
Home Field Advantage?
On page 111 and 112, Coyne explains the Asian giant hornet and how it ravages nests of introduced European honeybees. Thirty hornets alone can kill up to thirty thousand honeybees in just a few short hours. Afterwards, the hornets plunder the nest for food for their young. However, Coyne also mentions the native Japanese honeybee, which are able to basically roast the Asian giant hornet. How did the Japanese honeybee develop such an evolutionary advantage (Think about the Japanese honeybee being native and European being introduced)? Can you think of any other examples where a native species has developed a defense against a threat, while an introduced species falls prey to the threat? Consult outside sources in your quest to successfully answer this.
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The Japanese honeybee developed the evolutionary advantage of being able to defend itself against the Asian giant hornets because since the two species lived in the same areas (Asia), the Japanese honeybee had to evolve and develop a way to defend itself and enhance its chances at survival by developing a way to defeat the hornets. The European honeybees, however, did not face the same issue of predation by the vicious Asian hornets, and therefore never had a need to develop a defensive mechanism. Therefore, when the European honeybees were exposed to the Asian hornets, the European honeybees had no means of defending themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the Japanese honeybees developing their defense against the Asian hornets relates to the biological theme of evolution; the Japanese honeybees had to adapt to the presence and threat of the Asian hornets in order to sruvive. Another theme that can relate to this prompt is the theme of interdependence in nature, of which predation is a part of. The Asian giant hornet preys upon the European honeybees, and attempts to prey upon the Japanese honeybees as well.
Unfortunately, I could neither think of nor find any other examples of introducing species that fits the exact situation of an introduced species failing due to a threat, but native species being able to survive the threat. But there are some examples of failed introductions in general, like the attempted introduction of the Black Francolin to the mainland U.S. (http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/395/articles/introduction) or the failed introduction of Starlings to Ohio (http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1066). However, although it is mentioned in these sources that the introductions failed, there are no specific reasons given for the lack of success.
I agree with Samantha that the reason why the Japanese hornet survived and defeated the European honeybee was that the Japanese hornet had the right genetic material to live in its environment and the European honeybee didn't have the right the genetic material for the Japanese environment. The Japanese hornet evolved to be able to eat the insects in Japan and escape predators in Japan. The Japanese hornet is "the world's largest hornet; it's armed with fearsome jaws to clasp and kill its insect prey, and a quarter-inch stinger"(Coyne 111). The European can't survive against the Japanese hornet because the honeybee has never been exposed to the same things in Japan as the Japanese hornet and therefor does not have the right genetic material to live the Japanese environment.
ReplyDeleteAn experiment was done where researchers introduced 144 bird species to New Zealand. Out of the 144 bird species only 33 survived. A reason that so many species failed to survive was that many died out due to the avian flu. The native species already had immunity to the disease and therefore wasn't affected by the flu. The native birds have immunity against the flu because there are memory B and T cells in the native bird's body specific for the avian flu, so the bird won't get sick and die from the avian flu (Campbell 947). Another reason that most of the introduced species failed to survive in New Zealand is that many wetlands were being destroyed by humans so there was no place for the introduced species to live. The native species knew other places to live but the introduced species didn't know of these places because they weren't familiar with the New Zealand environment (http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Bio27Tuat02-t1-body-d1.html).
I agree with Samantha that the prompt relates to the theme interdependence in nature. For an animal to be able to survive, it has to be able to adapt to its environment. The animal has to have the right defenses against the predators and be able to eat the organisms in that environment. If the animals isn't able to adapt to the nature around it, then the animals wouldn't be able to survive like the European honeybee in Japan and the introduced bees in New Zealand.