. Biology of the Heteromyidae. Heteromyidae. HETEROMYID FORAGING 543 ground (Reynolds, 1958; Daly, pers. comm.). Other species appear to collect seeds from the soil surface or sieve them from the soil. The relative contribution of these two collection modes is not known. Species such as D. spectabilis or D. ingens, which make large belowground caches, could conceiv- ably harvest a season's supply of food di- rectly from plants during the short fruiting season, but other species must rely to some extent on seeds gleaned from the soil. The efficiency with which heteromyids can col- lect buried s
. Biology of the Heteromyidae. Heteromyidae. HETEROMYID FORAGING 543 ground (Reynolds, 1958; Daly, pers. comm.). Other species appear to collect seeds from the soil surface or sieve them from the soil. The relative contribution of these two collection modes is not known. Species such as D. spectabilis or D. ingens, which make large belowground caches, could conceiv- ably harvest a season's supply of food di- rectly from plants during the short fruiting season, but other species must rely to some extent on seeds gleaned from the soil. The efficiency with which heteromyids can col- lect buried seeds (see below) argues for the general importance of this foraging method. Sensory mo^i^^. — Heteromyids appear to locate seeds by olfaction, but very little re- search has been done on the constraints this places on foraging. Reichman (1981) pre- sents a simple model based on the assump- tion that the odor concentration in soil de- creases as the square of the distance from the odor source, and that total odor con- centration at the soil surface is the sum of all concentrations from nearby seeds. Het- eromyids could use the pattern of odors at the soil surface to assess characteristics of buried seeds. One critical prediction of the model is that in some circumstances (when seeds are relatively deep compared to their horizontal separation beneath the soil), odors should be more concentrated between seed clumps than directly over either clump, thus misleading a forager using olfaction about the exact location of seed clumps. In- deed, in a laboratory study Reichman and Oberstein (1977; see also Reichman, 1981) noted that under such confounding circum- stances, D. merriami individuals often dug halfway between buried seed piles. Perog- nathus amplus exhibited a different pattern of digging which suggested that they re- sponded to changes in the odor gradient rather than simply to the strongest odors present in the experimental arena (Reich- man and Oberstein, 1977). How the u
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