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Sagot M, Giacomini G, Chaves-Ramírez S, Hernández-Pinsón HA, Chaverri G. Vocal behavior and the use of social information during roost finding. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.905925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
When selecting feeding, hiding, or resting areas, animals face multiple decisions with different fitness consequences. To maximize efficiency, individuals can either collect personal information, or use information gathered and transmitted by other individuals (social information). Within group living species, organisms often specialize in either generating social information or using information gathered by other groups members. That is the case of the Spix’s disk-winged bat, Thyroptera tricolor. This species uses contact calls during roost finding. Social groups are composed by a mix of vocal and non-vocal individuals and those vocal roles appear to be consistent over time. Moreover, their vocal behavior can predict roost finding in natural settings, suggesting that vocal individuals are capable of generating social information that can be used by other group members. To date, however, we do not know if when presented with social information (contact calls) during roost finding, vocal individuals will make more or less use of these cues, compared to non-vocal individuals. To answer this question, we broadcast contact calls from a roost inside a flight cage to test whether vocal individuals could find a potential roost faster than non-vocal individuals when they encounter sounds that signal the presence of a roost site. Our results suggest that non-vocal individuals select roost sites based primarily on social information, whereas vocal individuals do not rely heavily on social information when deciding where to roost. This study provides the first link between vocal behavior and the use of social information during the search for roosting resources in bats. Incorporating ideas of social roles, and how individuals decide when and where to move based on the use of social information, may shed some light on these and other outstanding questions about the social lives of bats.
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2
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Bai ZD, Shi CY, Sillam-Dussès D, Wang RW. Elusive workers are more likely to differentiate into replacement reproductives than aggressive workers in a lower termite. Curr Zool 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoac040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
One of the most intriguing questions in eusocial insects is to understand how the overt reproductive conflict in the colony appears limited when queens or kings are senescent or lost, since the morphologically similar individuals in the colony are reproductively totipotent. Whether there are some individuals which preferentially differentiate into replacement reproductives or not has received little attention. The consistent individual behavioral differences (also termed ‘animal personality’) of individuals from the colony can shape cunningly their task and consequently affect the colony fitness but have been rarely investigated in eusocial insects. Here, we used the termite Reticulitermes labralis to investigate if variations in individual personalities (elusiveness and aggressiveness) may predict which individuals will perform reproductive differentiation within colonies. We observed that when we separately reared elusive and aggressive workers, elusive workers differentiate into reproductives significantly earlier than aggressive workers. When we reared them together in the proportions 12:3, 10:5 and 8:7 (aggressive workers:elusive workers), the first reproductives mostly differentiated from the elusive workers, and the reproductives differentiated from the elusive workers significantly earlier than from aggressive workers. Furthermore, we found that the number of workers participating in reproductive differentiation was significantly lower in the groups of both type of workers than in groups containing only elusive workers. Our results demonstrate that the elusiveness trait was a strong predictor of workers differentiation into replacement reproductives in R. labralis. Moreover, our results suggest that individual personalities within the insect society could play a key role in resolving the overt reproductive conflict.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhuang-Dong Bai
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
| | - Chong-Yang Shi
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
| | - David Sillam-Dussès
- Laboratory of Experimental and Comparative Ethology, LEEC, UR 4443, University Sorbonne Paris Nord, Villetaneuse, France
| | - Rui-Wu Wang
- School of Ecology and Environment, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
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3
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Haave-Audet E, Besson AA, Nakagawa S, Mathot KJ. Differences in resource acquisition, not allocation, mediate the relationship between behaviour and fitness: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 97:708-731. [PMID: 34859575 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2021] [Revised: 11/17/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Within populations, individuals often show repeatable variation in behaviour, called 'animal personality'. In the last few decades, numerous empirical studies have attempted to elucidate the mechanisms maintaining this variation, such as life-history trade-offs. Theory predicts that among-individual variation in behavioural traits could be maintained if traits that are positively associated with reproduction are simultaneously associated with decreased survival, such that different levels of behavioural expression lead to the same net fitness outcome. However, variation in resource acquisition may also be important in mediating the relationship between individual behaviour and fitness components (survival and reproduction). For example, if certain phenotypes (e.g. dominance or aggressiveness) are associated with higher resource acquisition, those individuals may have both higher reproduction and higher survival, relative to others in the population. When individuals differ in their ability to acquire resources, trade-offs are only expected to be observed at the within-individual level (i.e. for a given amount of resource, if an individual increases its allocation to reproduction, it comes at the cost of allocation to survival, and vice versa), while among individuals traits that are associated with increased survival may also be associated with increased reproduction. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis, asking: (i) do among-individual differences in behaviour reflect among-individual differences in resource acquisition and/or allocation, and (ii) is the relationship between behaviour and fitness affected by the type of behaviour and the testing environment? Our meta-analysis consisted of 759 estimates from 193 studies. Our meta-analysis revealed a positive correlation between pairs of estimates using both survival and reproduction as fitness proxies. That is, for a given study, behaviours that were associated with increased reproduction were also associated with increased survival, suggesting that variation in behaviour at the among-individual level largely reflects differences among individuals in resource acquisition. Furthermore, we found the same positive correlation between pairs of estimates using both survival and reproduction as fitness proxies at the phenotypic level. This is significant because we also demonstrated that these phenotypic correlations primarily reflect within-individual correlations. Thus, even when accounting for among-individual differences in resource acquisition, we did not find evidence of trade-offs at the within-individual level. Overall, the relationship between behaviour and fitness proxies was not statistically different from zero at the among-individual, phenotypic, and within-individual levels; this relationship was not affected by behavioural category nor by the testing condition. Our meta-analysis highlights that variation in resource acquisition may be more important in driving the relationship between behaviour and fitness than previously thought, including at the within-individual level. We suggest that this may come about via heterogeneity in resource availability or age-related effects, with higher resource availability and/or age leading to state-dependent shifts in behaviour that simultaneously increase both survival and reproduction. We emphasize that future studies examining the mechanisms maintaining behavioural variation in populations should test the link between behavioural expression and resource acquisition - both within and among individuals. Such work will allow the field of animal personality to develop specific predictions regarding the mediating effect of resource acquisition on the fitness consequences of individual behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elène Haave-Audet
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Bldg, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
| | - Anne A Besson
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Bldg, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada.,Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand
| | - Shinichi Nakagawa
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
| | - Kimberley J Mathot
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, CW 405, Biological Sciences Bldg, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada.,Canada Research Chair, Integrative Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E9, Canada
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4
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Parthasarathy B, Somanathan H, Wright J. Long‐Term Behavioural Syndrome in Subadult Indian Social Spiders But Not Over the Short‐Term or in Juveniles. Ethology 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Hema Somanathan
- School of Biology Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram India
| | - Jonathan Wright
- Department of Biology Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD) Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trondheim Norway
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5
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Loftus JC, Perez AA, Sih A. Task syndromes: linking personality and task allocation in social animal groups. Behav Ecol 2021; 32:1-17. [PMID: 33708004 PMCID: PMC7937036 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/araa083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2018] [Revised: 08/04/2020] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies of eusocial insects have extensively investigated two components of task allocation: how individuals distribute themselves among different tasks in a colony and how the distribution of labor changes to meet fluctuating task demand. While discrete age- and morphologically-based task allocation systems explain much of the social order in these colonies, the basis for task allocation in non-eusocial organisms and within eusocial castes remains unknown. Building from recent advances in the study of among-individual variation in behavior (i.e., animal personalities), we explore a potential mechanism by which individuality in behaviors unrelated to tasks can guide the developmental trajectories that lead to task specialization. We refer to the task-based behavioral syndrome that results from the correlation between the antecedent behavioral tendencies and task participation as a task syndrome. In this review, we present a framework that integrates concepts from a long history of task allocation research in eusocial organisms with recent findings from animal personality research to elucidate how task syndromes and resulting task allocation might manifest in animal groups. By drawing upon an extensive and diverse literature to evaluate the hypothesized framework, this review identifies future areas for study at the intersection of social behavior and animal personality.
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Affiliation(s)
- J C Loftus
- Department of Anthropology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA.,Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.,Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
| | - A A Perez
- Department of Entomology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - A Sih
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA
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6
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Anderson HM, Little AG, Fisher DN, McEwen BL, Culbert BM, Balshine S, Pruitt JN. Behavioral and physiological evidence that increasing group size ameliorates the impacts of social disturbance. J Exp Biol 2020; 223:jeb217075. [PMID: 32532861 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.217075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2019] [Accepted: 06/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Intra-group social stability is important for the long-term productivity and health of social organisms. We evaluated the effect of group size on group stability in the face of repeated social perturbations using a cooperatively breeding fish, Neolamprologus pulcher In a laboratory study, we compared both the social and physiological responses of individuals from small versus large groups to the repeated removal and replacement of the most dominant group member (the breeder male), either with a new male (treatment condition) or with the same male (control condition). Individuals living in large groups were overall more resistant to instability but were seemingly slower to recover from perturbation. Members of small groups were more vulnerable to instability but recovered faster. Breeder females in smaller groups also showed greater physiological preparedness for instability following social perturbations. In sum, we discover both behavioral and physiological evidence that living in larger groups helps to dampen the impacts of social instability in this system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah M Anderson
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
| | - Alexander G Little
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
- Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - David N Fisher
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
| | - Brendan L McEwen
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
| | - Brett M Culbert
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1
| | - Sigal Balshine
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
| | - Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
- Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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7
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Picard M, Sandi C. The social nature of mitochondria: Implications for human health. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 120:595-610. [PMID: 32651001 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.04.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2019] [Revised: 04/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Sociality has profound evolutionary roots and is observed from unicellular organisms to multicellular animals. In line with the view that social principles apply across levels of biological complexity, a growing body of data highlights the remarkable social nature of mitochondria - life-sustaining endosymbiotic organelles with their own genome that populate the cell cytoplasm. Here, we draw from organizing principles of behavior in social organisms to reveal that similar to individuals among social networks, mitochondria communicate with each other and with the cell nucleus, exhibit group formation and interdependence, synchronize their behaviors, and functionally specialize to accomplish specific functions within the organism. Mitochondria are social organelles. The extension of social principles across levels of biological complexity is a theoretical shift that emphasizes the role of communication and interdependence in cell biology, physiology, and neuroscience. With the help of emerging computational methods capable of capturing complex dynamic behavioral patterns, the implementation of social concepts in mitochondrial biology may facilitate cross-talk across disciplines towards increasingly holistic and accurate models of human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Picard
- Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; Department of Neurology, H. Houston Merritt Center, Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Carmen Sandi
- Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
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8
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Contact calling in context: intra- and intergroup variation in vocalization rates depend on a call’s function. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-020-02837-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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9
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Jolles JW, King AJ, Killen SS. The Role of Individual Heterogeneity in Collective Animal Behaviour. Trends Ecol Evol 2020; 35:278-291. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2019] [Revised: 11/04/2019] [Accepted: 11/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
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10
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Hasanyan J, Zino L, Burbano Lombana DA, Rizzo A, Porfiri M. Leader-follower consensus on activity-driven networks. Proc Math Phys Eng Sci 2020; 476:20190485. [PMID: 32082055 DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2019.0485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2019] [Accepted: 11/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Social groups such as schools of fish or flocks of birds display collective dynamics that can be modulated by group leaders, which facilitate decision-making toward a consensus state beneficial to the entire group. For instance, leaders could alert the group about attacking predators or the presence of food sources. Motivated by biological insight on social groups, we examine a stochastic leader-follower consensus problem where information sharing among agents is affected by perceptual constraints and each individual has a different tendency to form social connections. Leveraging tools from stochastic stability and eigenvalue perturbation theories, we study the consensus protocol in a mean-square sense, offering necessary-and-sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability and closed-form estimates of the convergence rate. Surprisingly, the prediction of our minimalistic model share similarities with observed traits of animal and human groups. Our analysis anticipates the counterintuitive result that heterogeneity can be beneficial to group decision-making by improving the convergence rate of the consensus protocol. This observation finds support in theoretical and empirical studies on social insects such as spider or honeybee colonies, as well as human teams, where inter-individual variability enhances the group performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jalil Hasanyan
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Lorenzo Zino
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | | | - Alessandro Rizzo
- Office of Innovation, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA.,Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
| | - Maurizio Porfiri
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA
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11
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Tokita CK, Tarnita CE. Social influence and interaction bias can drive emergent behavioural specialization and modular social networks across systems. J R Soc Interface 2020; 17:20190564. [PMID: 31910771 PMCID: PMC7014790 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2019.0564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 12/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
In social systems ranging from ant colonies to human society, behavioural specialization-consistent individual differences in behaviour-is commonplace: individuals can specialize in the tasks they perform (division of labour (DOL)), the political behaviour they exhibit (political polarization) or the non-task behaviours they exhibit (personalities). Across these contexts, behavioural specialization often co-occurs with modular and assortative social networks, such that individuals tend to associate with others that have the same behavioural specialization. This raises the question of whether a common mechanism could drive co-emergent behavioural specialization and social network structure across contexts. To investigate this question, here we extend a model of self-organized DOL to account for social influence and interaction bias among individuals-social dynamics that have been shown to drive political polarization. We find that these same social dynamics can also drive emergent DOL by forming a feedback loop that reinforces behavioural differences between individuals, a feedback loop that is impacted by group size. Moreover, this feedback loop also results in modular and assortative social network structure, whereby individuals associate strongly with those performing the same task. Our findings suggest that DOL and political polarization-two social phenomena not typically considered together-may actually share a common social mechanism. This mechanism may result in social organization in many contexts beyond task performance and political behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher K. Tokita
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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12
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Hannebaum SL, Wagnon GS, Brown CR. Variation in neophobia among cliff swallows at different colonies. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0226886. [PMID: 31869383 PMCID: PMC6927619 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2019] [Accepted: 12/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal groups often represent nonrandom subsets of individuals, and increasing evidence indicates that individuals may sort among groups based on their personalities. The size of a group can predict its personality composition in some species due to differential suitability of a personality for groups of certain sizes, and the group itself may function more effectively if particular personality types are present. We quantified cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) behavioral measures using linear and generalized linear mixed models to identify whether they: (1) varied among individuals within colonies and among colonies, (2) were related to reproductive success, and (3) predicted levels of parental care. Significant among-individual and among-colony site variation in a cliff swallow's latency to enter its nest when presented with a novel stimulus was revealed. We also found significant among-individual variation in the number of attacks directed toward a novel stimulus at the nest and in the response to broadcast of a cliff swallow alarm call recording, but among site variation in these measures was not significant. We did not find evidence for behavioral syndromes linking the personalities measured. Differences among individuals in latency to enter the nest and the number of attacks were not significantly related to reproductive success or to the extent to which birds fed their nestlings. However, extent of nestling feeding was significantly predicted by the number of mist net captures. The limited evidence in general of systematic variation in the behavior we measured among cliff swallow colonies may reflect the different and sometimes opposing selection pressures on behavior in different social environments. Future work should perhaps examine variation in other behavioral traits, such as foraging, in cliff swallow colonies of different sizes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stacey L. Hannebaum
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Gigi S. Wagnon
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States of America
| | - Charles R. Brown
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States of America
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13
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14
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Roth AM, Firth JA, Patrick SC, Cole EF, Sheldon BC. Partner’s age, not social environment, predicts extrapair paternity in wild great tits (Parus major). Behav Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
An individual’s fitness is not only influenced by its own phenotype, but by the phenotypes of interacting conspecifics. This is likely to be particularly true when considering fitness gains and losses caused by extrapair matings, as they depend directly on the social environment. While previous work has explored effects of dyadic interactions, limited understanding exists regarding how group-level characteristics of the social environment affect extrapair paternity (EPP) and cuckoldry. We use a wild population of great tits (Parus major) to examine how, in addition to the phenotypes of focal parents, two neighborhood-level traits—age and personality composition—predict EPP and cuckoldry. We used the well-studied trait “exploration behavior” as a measure of the reactive-proactive personality axis. Because breeding pairs inhabit a continuous “social landscape,” we first established an ecologically relevant definition of a breeding “neighborhood” through genotyping parents and nestlings in a 51-ha patch of woodland and assessing the spatial predictors of EPP events. Using the observed decline in likelihood of EPP with increasing spatial separation between nests, we determined the relevant neighborhood boundaries, and thus the group phenotypic composition of an individual’s neighborhood, by calculating the point at which the likelihood of EPP became negligible. We found no evidence that “social environment” effects (i.e., neighborhood age or personality composition) influenced EPP or cuckoldry. We did, however, find that a female’s own age influenced the EPP of her social mate, with males paired to older females gaining more EPP, even when controlling for the social environment. These findings suggest that partner characteristics, rather than group phenotypic composition, influence mating activity patterns at the individual level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison M Roth
- Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Zoology Research and Administration Building, Oxford, UK
- St. Catherine’s College, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Josh A Firth
- Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Zoology Research and Administration Building, Oxford, UK
- Merton College, Oxford, UK
| | - Samantha C Patrick
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Ella F Cole
- Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Zoology Research and Administration Building, Oxford, UK
| | - Ben C Sheldon
- Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Zoology Research and Administration Building, Oxford, UK
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15
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Lichtenstein JLL, Fisher DN, McEwen BL, Nondorf DT, Calvache E, Schmitz C, Elässer J, Pruitt JN. Collective aggressiveness limits colony persistence in high- but not low-elevation sites at Amazonian social spiders. J Evol Biol 2019; 32:1362-1367. [PMID: 31464022 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2019] [Revised: 08/10/2019] [Accepted: 08/22/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Identifying the traits that foster group survival in contrasting environments is important for understanding local adaptation in social systems. Here, we evaluate the relationship between the aggressiveness of social spider colonies and their persistence along an elevation gradient using the Amazonian spider, Anelosimus eximius. We found that colonies of A. eximius exhibit repeatable differences in their collective aggressiveness (latency to attack prey stimuli) and that colony aggressiveness is linked with persistence in a site-specific manner. Less aggressive colonies are better able to persist at high-elevation sites, which lack colony-sustaining large-bodied prey, whereas colony aggression was not related to chance of persistence at low-elevation sites. This suggests that low aggressiveness promotes colony survival in high-elevation, prey-poor habitats, perhaps via increased tolerance to resource limitation. These data reveal that the collective phenotypes that relate to colony persistence vary by site, and thus, the path of social evolution in these environments is likely to be affected.
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Affiliation(s)
- James L L Lichtenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - David N Fisher
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
| | - Brendan L McEwen
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
| | - Daniel T Nondorf
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Esteban Calvache
- Department of Biology, Pontifica Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
| | | | | | - Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California - Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.,Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
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16
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17
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The survival of the shyest: a computational model shows the effect of web structure on the origins of social spiders. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.05.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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18
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Little AG, Fisher DN, Schoener TW, Pruitt JN. Population differences in aggression are shaped by tropical cyclone-induced selection. Nat Ecol Evol 2019; 3:1294-1297. [PMID: 31427730 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0951-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Extreme events, such as tropical cyclones, are destructive and influential forces. However, observing and recording the ecological effects of these statistically improbable, yet profound 'black swan' weather events is logistically difficult. By anticipating the trajectory of tropical cyclones, and sampling populations before and after they make landfall, we show that these extreme events select for more aggressive colony phenotypes in the group-living spider Anelosimus studiosus. This selection is great enough to drive regional variation in colony phenotypes, despite the fact that tropical cyclone strikes are irregular, occurring only every few years, even in particularly prone regions. These data provide compelling evidence for tropical cyclone-induced selection driving the evolution of an important functional trait and show that black swan events contribute to within-species diversity and local adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander G Little
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.,Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - David N Fisher
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Thomas W Schoener
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. .,Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
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19
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Individual variation in queen morphology and behavior predicts colony performance in the wild. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-019-2739-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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20
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Perez A, Montiglio PO, Wey TW, Sih A. Male social plasticity influences transient dynamics in the emergence of alternative mating systems in water striders. Behav Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractAnimal mating systems are often studied with the goal of understanding why species, populations, or groups vary from one another in the system they display. Although these differences are often treated as basically stable, it is also known that mating systems may shift over time (e.g., from one breeding season to the next). There has been some study of how ecological factors correlate with these changes; however, few, if any, studies have investigated how the phenotypic composition of a group governs the timing and probability of these mating system transitions. Groups of stream water striders (Aquarius remigis) can experience rapid changes in mating system dynamics, with small groups often transitioning into a system in which a single, large male monopolizes mating opportunities. We asked if variation in individual- and group-level traits associated with morphology and behavior (e.g., size of the largest individual, average activity behavioral type in the group) could partially explain the variability in how rapidly groups make this transition, if they make it at all. We show that groups with males that exhibit higher social plasticity tended to take longer to transition to a mating system dominated by a single male. Our results, therefore, suggest that groups in identical ecological conditions can diverge in their mating systems based on how much individuals in the group change their behavior in response to the behavior of other members of the group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian Perez
- Department of Entomology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Pierre-Olivio Montiglio
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA
- Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Tina W Wey
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA
- Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
| | - Andrew Sih
- Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA
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21
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Tang ZH, Fu SJ. Qingbo (Spinibarbus sinensis) personalities and their effect on shoaling behavior. Acta Ethol 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10211-019-00321-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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22
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Costa-Pereira R, Pruitt J. Behaviour, morphology and microhabitat use: what drives individual niche variation? Biol Lett 2019; 15:20190266. [PMID: 31164064 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Generalist populations are often composed of individuals each specialized on only a subset of the resources exploited by the entire population. However, the traits underlying such niche variation remain underexplored. Classically, ecologists have focused on understanding why populations vary in their degree of intraspecific niche variation, with less attention paid to how individual-level traits lead to intraspecific differences in niches. We investigated how differences in behaviour, morphology and microhabitat affect niche variation between and within individuals in two species of spider Anelosimus studiosus and Theridion murarium. Our results convey that behaviour (i.e. individual aggressiveness) was a key driver of intraspecific trophic variation in both species. More aggressive individuals capture more prey, but particularly more Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. These findings suggest that behavioural traits play a critical role in determining individuals' diet and that behaviour can be a powerful force in driving intraspecific niche variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raul Costa-Pereira
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University , Hamilton, Ontario , Canada L8S 4L8
| | - Jonathan Pruitt
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University , Hamilton, Ontario , Canada L8S 4L8
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23
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Calbacho‐Rosa L, Cargnelutti F, Córdoba‐Aguilar A, Peretti AV. Consistency of females' stridulatory behaviour during inter‐sexual interactions in spiders. Ethology 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Lucía Calbacho‐Rosa
- Laboratorio de Biología Reproductiva y Evolución Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA) Córdoba Argentina
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Departamento de Diversidad Biológica y Ecología Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba Argentina
| | - Franco Cargnelutti
- Laboratorio de Biología Reproductiva y Evolución Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA) Córdoba Argentina
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Departamento de Diversidad Biológica y Ecología Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba Argentina
| | - Alex Córdoba‐Aguilar
- Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva Instituto de Ecología Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México México México
| | - Alfredo V. Peretti
- Laboratorio de Biología Reproductiva y Evolución Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (IDEA) Córdoba Argentina
- Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Departamento de Diversidad Biológica y Ecología Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Córdoba Argentina
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24
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O’Reilly AO, Hofmann G, Mettke-Hofmann C. Gouldian finches are followers with black-headed females taking the lead. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0214531. [PMID: 30943239 PMCID: PMC6447166 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2018] [Accepted: 03/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Colour polymorphism is a widespread phenomenon and often encompasses different behavioural traits and strategies. More recently, it has been shown that morphs can also signal consistent individual differences (personality). An example are Gouldian finches that show discrete head colour morphs in the same population with red-headed birds being more aggressive but less risk-taking and explorative than black-headed birds in the lab. The current study aimed to investigate the link between head colour and behavioural traits in a naturally risky situation in the wild by recording the order of descent at waterholes in relation to hypotheses considering conspicuousness, dominance relationships and experience. Other bird species at the waterholes were also included in the study. Adult Gouldian finches generally preceded juveniles and among the adults the least conspicuous black-headed females descended first to the waterhole. Overall, females descended before the males though this pattern disappeared later in the season likely due to family groups breaking up and releasing males from attending to the juveniles. Finally, Gouldian finches almost always followed other species, particularly Long-tailed finches, to the ground rather than taking the lead. A two-level process of decision-making seems to explain the responses best: on the first level, experience separates adults from juveniles with adults preceding juveniles and on the second level, conspicuousness acts as a factor among the adults with the least conspicuous category taking the lead. Future studies should directly test the link between head colour and personality in the wild, look more into seasonal effects and investigate whether Gouldian finches use Long-tailed finches as an indicator of safety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrias O. O’Reilly
- School of Natural Sciences & Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, James Parsons building, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | | | - Claudia Mettke-Hofmann
- School of Natural Sciences & Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, James Parsons building, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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25
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Wilson ADM, Burns ALJ, Crosato E, Lizier J, Prokopenko M, Schaerf TM, Ward AJW. Conformity in the collective: differences in hunger affect individual and group behavior in a shoaling fish. Behav Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Animal groups are often composed of individuals that vary according to behavioral, morphological, and internal state parameters. Understanding the importance of such individual-level heterogeneity to the establishment and maintenance of coherent group responses is of fundamental interest in collective behavior. We examined the influence of hunger on the individual and collective behavior of groups of shoaling fish, x-ray tetras (Pristella maxillaris). Fish were assigned to one of two nutritional states, satiated or hungry, and then allocated to 5 treatments that represented different ratios of satiated to hungry individuals (8 hungry, 8 satiated, 4:4 hungry:satiated, 2:6 hungry:satiated, 6:2 hungry:satiated). Our data show that groups with a greater proportion of hungry fish swam faster and exhibited greater nearest neighbor distances. Within groups, however, there was no difference in the swimming speeds of hungry versus well-fed fish, suggesting that group members conform and adapt their swimming speed according to the overall composition of the group. We also found significant differences in mean group transfer entropy, suggesting stronger patterns of information flow in groups comprising all, or a majority of, hungry individuals. In contrast, we did not observe differences in polarization, a measure of group alignment, within groups across treatments. Taken together these results demonstrate that the nutritional state of animals within social groups impacts both individual and group behavior, and that members of heterogenous groups can adapt their behavior to facilitate coherent collective motion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander D M Wilson
- School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Devon, UK
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Alicia L J Burns
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Emanuele Crosato
- School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Joseph Lizier
- School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Mikhail Prokopenko
- School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Timothy M Schaerf
- School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
| | - Ashley J W Ward
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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26
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Abstract
This paper defines the research area of Diversity-enhanced Autonomy in Robot Teams (DART), a novel paradigm for the creation and design of policies for multi-robot coordination. Although current approaches to multi-robot coordination have been successful in structured, well-understood environments, they have not been successful in unstructured, uncertain environments, such as disaster response. Although robot hardware has advanced significantly in the past decade, the way we solve multi-robot problems has not. Even with significant advances in the field of multi-robot systems, the same problem-solving paradigm has remained: assumptions are made to simplify the problem, and a solution is optimized for those assumptions and deployed to the entire team. This results in brittle solutions that prove incapable if the original assumptions are invalidated. This paper introduces a new multi-robot problem-solving paradigm which uses a diverse set of control policies that work together synergistically within the same team of robots. Such an approach will make multi-robot systems more robust in unstructured and uncertain environments, such as in disaster response, environmental monitoring, and military applications, and allow multi-robot systems to extend beyond the highly structured and highly controlled environments where they are successful today.
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27
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DiRienzo N, Johnson JC, Dornhaus A. Juvenile social experience generates differences in behavioral variation but not averages. Behav Ecol 2019; 30:455-464. [PMID: 30971860 PMCID: PMC6450201 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ary185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2018] [Revised: 09/21/2018] [Accepted: 12/08/2018] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Developmental plasticity is known to influence the mean behavioral phenotype of a population. Yet, studies on how developmental plasticity shapes patterns of variation within populations are comparatively rare and often focus on a subset of developmental cues (e.g., nutrition). One potentially important but understudied developmental experience is social experience, as it is explicitly hypothesized to increase variation among individuals as a way to promote "social niches." To test this, we exposed juvenile black widow spiders (Latrodectus hesperus) to the silk of conspecifics by transplanting them onto conspecific webs for 48 h once a week until adulthood. We also utilized an untouched control group as well as a disturbed group. This latter group was removed from their web at the same time points as the social treatment, but was immediately placed back on their own web. After repeatedly measuring adult behavior and web structure, we found that social rearing drove higher or significant levels of repeatability relative to the other treatments. Repeatability in the social treatment also decreased in some traits, paralleling the decreases observed in the disturbed treatments. Thus, repeated juvenile disturbance may decrease among-individual differences in adult spiders. Yet, social rearing appeared to override the effect of disturbance in some traits, suggesting a prioritization effect. The resulting individual differences were maintained over at least one-third of the adult lifespan and thus appear to represent stable, canalized developmental effects and not temporal state differences. These results provide proximate insight into how a broader range of developmental experiences shape trait variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas DiRienzo
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - J Chadwick Johnson
- School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Arizona State University, Glendale, AZ, USA
| | - Anna Dornhaus
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
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28
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Early ontogenic emergence of personality and its long-term persistence in a social spider. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-019-2645-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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29
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Sasaki T, Mann RP, Warren KN, Herbert T, Wilson T, Biro D. Personality and the collective: bold homing pigeons occupy higher leadership ranks in flocks. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 373:rstb.2017.0038. [PMID: 29581403 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/30/2017] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
While collective movement is ecologically widespread and conveys numerous benefits on individuals, it also poses a coordination problem: who controls the group's movements? The role that animal 'personalities' play in this question has recently become a focus of research interest. Although many animal groups have distributed leadership (i.e. multiple individuals influence collective decisions), studies linking personality and leadership have focused predominantly on the group's single most influential individual. In this study, we investigate the relationship between personality and the influence of multiple leaders on collective movement using homing pigeons, Columba livia, a species known to display complex multilevel leadership hierarchies during flock flights. Our results show that more exploratory (i.e. 'bold') birds are more likely to occupy higher ranks in the leadership hierarchy and thus have more influence on the direction of collective movement than less exploratory (i.e. 'shy') birds during both free flights around their lofts and homing flights from a distant site. Our data also show that bold pigeons fly faster than shy birds during solo flights. We discuss our results in light of theories about the evolution of personality, with specific reference to the adaptive value of heterogeneity in animal groups.This article is part of the theme issue 'Collective movement ecology'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takao Sasaki
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Richard P Mann
- Department of Statistics, School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
| | - Katherine N Warren
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Tristian Herbert
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Tara Wilson
- University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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30
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Wright CM, Lichtenstein JLL, Doering GN, Pretorius J, Meunier J, Pruitt JN. Collective personalities: present knowledge and new frontiers. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-019-2639-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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31
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Jolles JW, Laskowski KL, Boogert NJ, Manica A. Repeatable group differences in the collective behaviour of stickleback shoals across ecological contexts. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 285:rspb.2017.2629. [PMID: 29436496 PMCID: PMC5829202 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2017] [Accepted: 01/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Establishing how collective behaviour emerges is central to our understanding of animal societies. Previous research has highlighted how universal interaction rules shape collective behaviour, and that individual differences can drive group functioning. Groups themselves may also differ considerably in their collective behaviour, but little is known about the consistency of such group variation, especially across different ecological contexts that may alter individuals' behavioural responses. Here, we test if randomly composed groups of sticklebacks differ consistently from one another in both their structure and movement dynamics across an open environment, an environment with food, and an environment with food and shelter. Based on high-resolution tracking data of the free-swimming shoals, we found large context-associated changes in the average behaviour of the groups. But despite these changes and limited social familiarity among group members, substantial and predictable behavioural differences between the groups persisted both within and across the different contexts (group-level repeatability): some groups moved consistently faster, more cohesively, showed stronger alignment and/or clearer leadership than other groups. These results suggest that among-group heterogeneity could be a widespread feature in animal societies. Future work that considers group-level variation in collective behaviour may help understand the selective pressures that shape how animal collectives form and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jolle W Jolles
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DT, UK .,Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Konstanz 78457, Germany.,Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz 78457, Germany
| | - Kate L Laskowski
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany
| | - Neeltje J Boogert
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DT, UK.,Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Andrea Manica
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DT, UK
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32
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Page H, Sweeney A, Pilko A, Pinter-Wollman N. Underlying mechanisms and ecological context of variation in exploratory behavior of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile. J Exp Biol 2018; 221:jeb188722. [PMID: 30385482 PMCID: PMC6307874 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.188722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2018] [Accepted: 10/29/2018] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
Uncovering how and why animals explore their environment is fundamental for understanding population dynamics, the spread of invasive species, species interactions, etc. In social animals, individuals within a group can vary in their exploratory behavior, and the behavioral composition of the group can determine its collective success. Workers of the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) exhibit individual variation in exploratory behavior, which affects the colony's collective nest selection behavior. Here, we examine the mechanisms underlying this behavioral variation in exploratory behavior and determine its implications for the ecology of this species. We first establish that individual variation in exploratory behavior is repeatable and consistent across situations. We then show a relationship between exploratory behavior and the expression of genes that have been previously linked with other behaviors in social insects. Specifically, we found a negative relationship between exploratory behavior and the expression of the foraging (Lhfor) gene. Finally, we determine how colonies allocate exploratory individuals in natural conditions. We found that ants from inside the nest are the least exploratory individuals, whereas workers on newly formed foraging trails are the most exploratory individuals. Furthermore, we found temporal differences throughout the year: in early-mid spring, when new resources emerge, workers are more exploratory than at the end of winter, potentially allowing the colony to find and exploit new resources. These findings reveal the importance of individual variation in behavior for the ecology of social animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Page
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Andrew Sweeney
- Biocircuits Institute, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093, USA
| | - Anna Pilko
- Institute of Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Noa Pinter-Wollman
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Institute of Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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33
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Klemme I, Karvonen A. Experience and dominance in fish pairs jointly shape parasite avoidance behaviour. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.10.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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34
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Garrison LK, Kleineidam CJ, Weidenmüller A. Behavioral flexibility promotes collective consistency in a social insect. Sci Rep 2018; 8:15836. [PMID: 30367093 PMCID: PMC6203754 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-33917-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2018] [Accepted: 10/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Deciphering the mechanisms that integrate individuals and their behavior into a functional unit is crucial for our understanding of collective behaviors. We here present empirical evidence for the impressive strength of social processes in this integration. We investigated collective temperature homeostasis in bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) colonies and found that bees are less likely to engage in thermoregulatory fanning and do so with less time investment when confronted with heat stress in a group setting than when facing the same challenge alone and that this down-regulation of individual stimulus-response behavior resulted in a consistent proportion of workers in a group engaged in the task of fanning. Furthermore, the bees that comprised the subset of fanning individuals changed from trial to trial and participation in the task was predominately unpredictable based on previous response behavior. Our results challenge basic assumptions in the most commonly used class of models for task allocation and contrast numerous collective behavior studies that emphasize the importance of fixed inter-individual variation for the functioning of animal groups. We demonstrate that bumblebee colonies maintain within-group behavioral heterogeneity and a consistent collective response pattern based on social responsiveness and behavioral flexibility at the individual level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda Karen Garrison
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany
| | | | - Anja Weidenmüller
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany.
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35
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Saar M, Eyer PA, Kilon-Kallner T, Hefetz A, Scharf I. Within-colony genetic diversity differentially affects foraging, nest maintenance, and aggression in two species of harvester ants. Sci Rep 2018; 8:13868. [PMID: 30217995 PMCID: PMC6138738 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32064-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2018] [Accepted: 09/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
There is accumulating evidence that genetic diversity improves the behavioral performance and consequently the fitness in groups of social animals. We examined the behavioral performance of colonies of two co-occurring, congeneric harvester ant species (Messor arenarius and a non-described Messor sp.) in fitness-related behaviors, pertaining to foraging performance, nest maintenance, and aggression. We linked these behaviors to the colonial genetic diversity, by genotyping workers, using six and five microsatellite markers for M. arenarius and M. sp., respectively. Correlations of genetic diversity with colony performance and aggression level contrasted between the two species. In M. arenarius, genetic diversity was correlated with foraging performance and nest maintenance but not with the overall aggression level, while in M. sp., genetic diversity was correlated with the overall aggression level, but not with foraging performance or nest maintenance. The two species exhibited similar specific aggression levels, with higher aggression shown towards heterospecifics and lower towards non-nestmate conspecifics and nestmates. However, M. sp. workers displayed a tendency to interact for longer with heterospecifics than did M. arenarius. We speculate that the different foraging strategies, group vs. individual foraging, and possibly also the different mating systems, contribute to the differences found in behavior between the two species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maya Saar
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Pierre-André Eyer
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Tal Kilon-Kallner
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Abraham Hefetz
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Inon Scharf
- School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
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36
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Wang MY, Chittka L, Ings TC. Bumblebees Express Consistent, but Flexible, Speed-Accuracy Tactics Under Different Levels of Predation Threat. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1601. [PMID: 30233456 PMCID: PMC6130052 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2018] [Accepted: 08/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
A speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) in behavioural decisions is known to occur in a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate taxa. Accurate decisions often take longer for a given condition, while fast decisions can be inaccurate in some tasks. Speed-accuracy tactics are known to vary consistently among individuals, and show a degree of flexibility during colour discrimination tasks in bees. Such individual flexibility in speed-accuracy tactics is likely to be advantageous for animals exposed to fluctuating environments, such as changes in predation threat. We therefore test whether individual speed-accuracy tactics are fixed or flexible under different levels of predation threat in a model invertebrate, the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. The flexibility of speed-accuracy tactics in a foraging context was tested in the laboratory using a “meadow” of artificial flowers harbouring “robotic” crab spider predators. We found that while the ranking of bees along the speed and accuracy continuums was consistent across two levels of predation threat, there was some flexibility in the tactics used by individual bees – most bees became less accurate at colour discrimination when exposed to predation threat when flower types were rewarding. The relationship between decision speed and accuracy was influenced by predator detectability and the risk associated with making incorrect choices during the colour discrimination task. Predator crypsis resulted in a breakdown in the relationship between speed and accuracy, especially when making an incorrect floral choice incurred a distasteful quinine punishment. No single speed-accuracy tactic was found to be optimal in terms of foraging efficiency under either predation threat situation. However, bees that made faster decisions achieved higher nectar collection rates in predator free situations, while accurate bees achieved higher foraging rates under predation threat. Our findings show that while individual bees remain relatively consistent in terms of whether they place greater emphasis on speed or accuracy under predation threat, they can respond flexibly to the additional time costs of detecting predators.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mu-Yun Wang
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.,Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Lars Chittka
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.,Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, Germany
| | - Thomas C Ings
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.,Department of Biology, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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Kaspar RE, Cook CN, Breed MD. Experienced individuals influence the thermoregulatory fanning behaviour in honey bee colonies. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
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40
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Harwood G, Avilés L. The shortfall of sociality: group-living affects hunting performance of individual social spiders. Behav Ecol 2018. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ary099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Gyan Harwood
- School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Leticia Avilés
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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41
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Carere C, Audebrand C, Rödel HG, d'Ettorre P. Individual behavioural type and group performance in Formica fusca ants. Behav Processes 2018; 157:402-407. [PMID: 30036642 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2018.07.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2018] [Revised: 07/11/2018] [Accepted: 07/19/2018] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
The link between individual and group-level behaviour may help understanding cooperation and division of labour in social animals. Despite the recent surge of studies, especially in social insects, the way individual differences translate into group performance remains debated. One hypothesis is that groups may simply differ in the average personality of their members and this would translate into inter-group differences in collective behaviour. We tested the hypothesis of a linear relationship between individual and group phenotype in the ant Formica fusca by using same-age groups of workers after measuring an individual behavioural trait. Individual exploratory activity in an open-field arena was significantly repeatable. Based on this trait, groups were composed, each consisting of 6 individuals with similar exploration tendency housed with 3 cocoons and a refuge. Individual exploratory activity was associated with the performance in cocoon recovery at the group level: groups composed of high exploratory individuals started transporting displaced cocoons significantly earlier and transported more cocoons into the refuge than groups with low exploratory workers. When in a group, more exploratory animals showed significantly more returns to the refuge than less exploratory ones and tended to transport more cocoons. These results show a direct linear link between individual and collective behaviour, suggesting that colony personality reflects the average personality of workers involved in a given task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudio Carere
- Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée EA4443, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France; Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences, University of Tuscia, Italy.
| | - Celine Audebrand
- Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée EA4443, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Heiko G Rödel
- Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée EA4443, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Patrizia d'Ettorre
- Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée EA4443, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
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42
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Conspecific boldness and predator species determine predation-risk consequences of prey personality. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-018-2544-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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43
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Ribeiro RF, Gomes FC, Tizo AFS, Tizo-Pedroso E, Del-Claro K. Cooperative foraging in neotropical pseudoscorpions: effects of prey changes on behavioral adjustments of colonies. Acta Ethol 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s10211-018-0294-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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44
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Turner J, Hughes WOH. The effect of parasitism on personality in a social insect. Behav Processes 2018; 157:532-539. [PMID: 29898416 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2018.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2017] [Revised: 05/31/2018] [Accepted: 06/04/2018] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Individuals are known to differ consistently in various aspects of their behaviour in many animal species, a phenomenon that has come to be referred to as animal personalities. These individual differences are likely to have evolutionary and ecological significance, and it is therefore important to understand the precise nature of how environmental and physiological factors affect animal personalities. One factor which may affect personality is disease, but while the effects of disease on many aspects of host behaviour are well known, the effects on animal personalities have been little studied. Here we show that wood ants, Formica rufa, exhibit consistent individual differences in three personality traits: boldness, sociability and aggressiveness. However, experimental exposure to a virulent fungal parasite, Metarhizium pingshaense, had surprisingly little effect on the personality traits. Parasite-challenged ants showed marginal changes in sociability at high doses of parasite but no change in boldness or aggressiveness even when close to death. There was similarly little effect of other physiological stresses on ant personalities. The results suggest that individual personality in ants can be remarkably resilient to physiological stress, such as that caused by parasite infection. Future studies are needed to determine whether there is a similar resilience in solitary animals, as well as in other social species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joe Turner
- School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK.
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Kilgour RJ, McAdam AG, Betini GS, Norris DR. Experimental evidence that density mediates negative frequency-dependent selection on aggression. J Anim Ecol 2018; 87:1091-1101. [PMID: 29446094 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2017] [Accepted: 01/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Aggression can be beneficial in competitive environments if aggressive individuals are more likely to access resources than non-aggressive individuals. However, variation in aggressive behaviour persists within populations, suggesting that high levels of aggression might not always be favoured. The goal of this study was to experimentally assess the effects of population density and phenotypic frequency on selection on aggression in a competitive environment. We compared survival of two strains of Drosophila melanogaster that differ in aggression across three density treatments and five frequency treatments (single strain groups, equal numbers of each strain and strains mixed at 3:1 and 1:3 ratios) during a period of limited resources. While there was no difference in survival across single-strain treatments, survival was strongly density dependent, with declining survival as density increased. Furthermore, at medium and high densities, there was evidence of negative frequency-dependent selection, where rare strains experienced greater survival than common strains. However, there was no evidence of negative frequency-dependent selection at low density. Our results indicate that the benefits of aggression during periods of limited resources can depend on the interaction between the phenotypic composition of populations and population density, both of which are mechanisms that could maintain variation in aggressive behaviours within natural populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Julia Kilgour
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Andrew G McAdam
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Gustavo S Betini
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - D Ryan Norris
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
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46
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Parthasarathy B, Somanathan H. Body condition and food shapes group dispersal but not solitary dispersal in a social spider. Behav Ecol 2018. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ary013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Bharat Parthasarathy
- IISER-TVM Centre for Research and Education in Ecology and Evolution (ICREEE), School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
| | - Hema Somanathan
- IISER-TVM Centre for Research and Education in Ecology and Evolution (ICREEE), School of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
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Wright CM, Hyland TD, Izzo AS, McDermott DR, Tibbetts EA, Pruitt JN. Polistes metricus queens exhibit personality variation and behavioral syndromes. Curr Zool 2018; 64:45-52. [PMID: 29492037 PMCID: PMC5809027 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zox008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2016] [Accepted: 02/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Consistent differences in behavior between individuals, otherwise known as animal personalities, have become a staple in behavioral ecology due to their ability to explain a wide range of phenomena. Social organisms are especially serviceable to animal personality techniques because they can be used to explore behavioral variation at both the individual and group level. Despite the success of personality research in social organisms generally, and social Hymenoptera in particular, social wasps (Vespidae) have received little to no attention in the personality literature. In the present study, we test Polistes metricus (Vespidae; Polistinae) paper wasp queens for the presence of repeatable variation in, and correlations ("behavioral syndromes") between, several commonly used personality metrics: boldness, aggressiveness, exploration, and activity. Our results indicate that P. metricus queens exhibit personalities for all measured traits and correlations between different behavioral measures. Given that paper wasps have served as a model organism for a wide range of phenomena such as kin selection, dominance hierarchies, mate choice, facial recognition, social parasitism, and chemical recognition, we hope that our results will motivate researchers to explore whether, or to what degree, queen personality is important in their research programs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin M Wright
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Trevor D Hyland
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Amanda S Izzo
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Donna R McDermott
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Tibbetts
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048, USA
| | - Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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De Winter G. AI personalities: clues from animal research. J EXP THEOR ARTIF IN 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/0952813x.2018.1430861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Gunnar De Winter
- School of Life Sciences, Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution Group, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK
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Viscardi LH, Paixão-Côrtes VR, Comas D, Salzano FM, Rovaris D, Bau CD, Amorim CEG, Bortolini MC. Searching for ancient balanced polymorphisms shared between Neanderthals and Modern Humans. Genet Mol Biol 2018; 41:67-81. [PMID: 29658973 PMCID: PMC5901502 DOI: 10.1590/1678-4685-gmb-2017-0308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2017] [Accepted: 11/26/2017] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Hominin evolution is characterized by adaptive solutions often rooted in behavioral and cognitive changes. If balancing selection had an important and long-lasting impact on the evolution of these traits, it can be hypothesized that genes associated with them should carry an excess of shared polymorphisms (trans- SNPs) across recent Homo species. In this study, we investigate the role of balancing selection in human evolution using available exomes from modern (Homo sapiens) and archaic humans (H. neanderthalensis and Denisovan) for an excess of trans-SNP in two gene sets: one associated with the immune system (IMMS) and another one with behavioral system (BEHS). We identified a significant excess of trans-SNPs in IMMS (N=547), of which six of these located within genes previously associated with schizophrenia. No excess of trans-SNPs was found in BEHS, but five genes in this system harbor potential signals for balancing selection and are associated with psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders. Our approach evidenced recent Homo trans-SNPs that have been previously implicated in psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, suggesting that a genetic repertoire common to the immune and behavioral systems could have been maintained by balancing selection starting before the split between archaic and modern humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Henriques Viscardi
- Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | | | - David Comas
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de LaSalut, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Francisco Mauro Salzano
- Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Diego Rovaris
- Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Claiton Dotto Bau
- Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Carlos Eduardo G. Amorim
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, U.S.A
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, U.S.A
| | - Maria Cátira Bortolini
- Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
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Nakayama S, Harcourt JL, Johnstone RA, Manica A. Who directs group movement? Leader effort versus follower preference in stickleback fish of different personality. Biol Lett 2017; 12:rsbl.2016.0207. [PMID: 27194292 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2016] [Accepted: 04/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
During collective movement, bolder individuals often emerge as leaders. Here, we investigate whether this reflects a greater propensity of bold individuals to initiate movement, or a preference for shy individuals to follow a bolder leader. We set up trios of stickleback fish comprising a focal individual who was either bold or shy, and one other individual of each personality. We then recorded the movements of all individuals in and out of cover in a foraging context to determine how assiduously the focal fish followed the movements of each other partner. We found that a shy focal fish preferred to follow a leader whose personality matched its own, but we did not detect such a difference in bold fish. Despite this preference, however, the greater propensity of bold individuals to initiate movements out of cover meant that they successfully led more joint trips. Thus, when offered a choice of leaders, sticklebacks prefer to follow individuals whose personality matches their own, but bolder individuals may, nevertheless, be able to impose their leadership, even among shy followers, simply through greater effort.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shinnosuke Nakayama
- Albrecht-Daniel-Thaer-Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, 12587 Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Rufus A Johnstone
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Andrea Manica
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
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