No evidence of sickness behaviour or diet selectivity in
immune-challenged field crickets
Abstract
Sickness behaviour is a taxonomically-widespread coordinated set of
behavioural changes that in- creases shelter-seeking while reducing
levels of general activity, as well as food (anorexia) and water
(adipsia) consumption, when fighting infection by pathogens and disease.
The leading hypothesis ex- plaining such sickness-related shifts in
behaviour is the energy conservation hypothesis. This hypothe- sis
argues that sick (i.e. immune-challenged) animals reduce energetic
expenditure in order have more energy to fuel an immune response, which
in some vertebrates, also includes producing an energetically- expensive
physiological fever. We experimentally tested the hypothesis that an
immune-challenge with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) will cause Gryllus firmus
field crickets to reduce their activity, increase shelter- use and avoid
foods that interfere with an immune response (i.e. fat) while preferring
a diet thats fuel an immune response (i.e. protein). We found little
evidence of sickness behaviour in Gryllus firmus as immune-challenged
individuals did not reduce their activity or increase their
shelter-seeking. Neither did we observe changes in feeding or drinking
behaviour nor a preference for protein or avoidance of lipids. Males
tended to use shelters less than females but no other behaviours
differed between the sexes. The lack of sickness behaviour in our study
might reflect the fact that invertebrates do not possess
energetically-expensive physiological fever as part of their immune
response. Therefore, there is little reason to conserve energy via
reduced activity or increased shelter use when immune-challenged.