Tree-Leaf Chemicals and Feeding Behavior
of Arboreal Mammals in Seasonal
Environment
15
Mutsumi Ito and Fumio Hayashi
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
2 Effects of Tree-Leaf Chemicals on Feeding Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
2.1 Which Species of Leaves They Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
2.2 Which Leaves They Eat Within the Same Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
2.3 Which Parts of Leaves They Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
3 Tree-Leaf Chemicals in Seasonal Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
3.1 General Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
3.2 Secondary Metabolites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
4 A Case Study: Seasonal Changes in Leaf Chemicals and the Giant Flying Squirrel’s
Feeding Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Abstract
Mammalian herbivores are considered to eat plants with high nutrition but to
avoid those with harmful chemical components. Most species eat plants selectively, but some species develop tolerance to the harmful plant chemicals. Food
selection occurs between tree species, conspecific trees, leaves within the same
tree, and leaf parts. Leaf chemical components also differ in these hierarchical
structures. However, the effects of plant chemicals on food selectivity are yet
unknown in tree-leaf eating mammals such as arboreal primates, rodents, and
marsupials, as compared with other mammals eating herbaceous plants, seeds,
nuts, and fruits. Moreover, the effects of seasonal changes in leaf chemicals and
the microscale distribution of chemicals within the single leaf have little examined. This chapter shows how tree-leaf chemicals affect feeding behavior of the
M. Ito (*) · F. Hayashi
Department of Biology, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: ito.mutsumi.gfs@gmail.com; fhayashi@tmu.ac.jp
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
J.-M. Mérillon, K. G. Ramawat (eds.), Co-Evolution of Secondary Metabolites,
Reference Series in Phytochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96397-6_25
345
of Arboreal Mammals in Seasonal
Environment
15
Mutsumi Ito and Fumio Hayashi
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
2 Effects of Tree-Leaf Chemicals on Feeding Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
2.1 Which Species of Leaves They Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
2.2 Which Leaves They Eat Within the Same Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
2.3 Which Parts of Leaves They Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
3 Tree-Leaf Chemicals in Seasonal Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
3.1 General Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
3.2 Secondary Metabolites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
4 A Case Study: Seasonal Changes in Leaf Chemicals and the Giant Flying Squirrel’s
Feeding Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Abstract
Mammalian herbivores are considered to eat plants with high nutrition but to
avoid those with harmful chemical components. Most species eat plants selectively, but some species develop tolerance to the harmful plant chemicals. Food
selection occurs between tree species, conspecific trees, leaves within the same
tree, and leaf parts. Leaf chemical components also differ in these hierarchical
structures. However, the effects of plant chemicals on food selectivity are yet
unknown in tree-leaf eating mammals such as arboreal primates, rodents, and
marsupials, as compared with other mammals eating herbaceous plants, seeds,
nuts, and fruits. Moreover, the effects of seasonal changes in leaf chemicals and
the microscale distribution of chemicals within the single leaf have little examined. This chapter shows how tree-leaf chemicals affect feeding behavior of the
M. Ito (*) · F. Hayashi
Department of Biology, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: ito.mutsumi.gfs@gmail.com; fhayashi@tmu.ac.jp
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
J.-M. Mérillon, K. G. Ramawat (eds.), Co-Evolution of Secondary Metabolites,
Reference Series in Phytochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96397-6_25
345