Ecological immunity studies in invertebrates, particularly insects, have generated new insights into trade-offs between immune functions and other physiological parameters. These studies document physiologically directed reallocations of immune costs to other high-cost areas of physiology. Immunosenescence, recognized as the age-related deterioration of immune functions, is another mechanism of radically altering immune systems. We investigated the hypothesis that aging brings on immunosenescence in adult males of the cricket, Gryllus assimilis. Our data show that the intensity of melanotic nodule formation decreased with adult age from after 3-week post-adult emergence. Circulating hemocyte populations similarly decreased from about 5,000 hemocytes/µl hemolymph to about 1,000 hemocytes/µl hemolymph. The numbers of damaged hemocytes in circulation increased from less than 10% at 1-week post-adult emergence to approximately 60% by 3-week post-adult emergence. The composition of hemocyte types changed with age, with increasing proportions of granulocytes and decreasing proportions of plasmatocytes. The declines in nodule formation were not linked to the adult age of sexual behaviors, which begin shortly after entering adulthood in this species. We infer that age-related senescence, rather than cost reallocations, may account for observed declines in various parameters of immune functions in insects, as seen in other animals.
© 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.