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Rostovtseva VV, Mezentseva AA, Butovskaya ML. Perception of Emergent Leaders' Faces and Evolution of Social Cheating: Cross-Cultural Experiments. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2022; 20:14747049221081733. [PMID: 35238674 PMCID: PMC10355292 DOI: 10.1177/14747049221081733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Revised: 01/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether neutral faces of individuals with different propensities for leadership may convey information about their personal qualities, and are there impacts of sex, population and social environment on the facial perception. This study is based on a previous experiment ( Rostovtseva et al., 2022), where emergent leadership in the context of male group cooperation was investigated in Buryats (Mongolian population of Siberia). In the previous study three behavioural types of participants were revealed: non-leaders, prosocial leaders and leaders-cheaters, each having a set of distinguishing personality, communicative, and cooperative features. In the current study, three composite portraits representing different leadership qualities of Buryat men from the prior experiment were created. The composites were then scored on a number of traits by male and female Russian and Buryat independent raters (N = 435). The results revealed that ratings on masculinity, physical strength, dominance, competitiveness, and perceived leadership were positively correlated, while perceived trustworthiness was negatively associated with these traits. However, the composite portraits of actual leaders generally were scored as more trustworthy, masculine, and physically strong, with the prosocial leaders' portrait being perceived as healthier than others. Surprisingly, the composite of leaders-cheaters was scored as the most trustworthy and generous, and the least competitive than others. No significant effects of raters' sex, origin, or degree of familiarity with Mongolian appearance were revealed. We conclude that static facial morphology contributes to appearing trustworthy, which may allow exploitation of others.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anna A. Mezentseva
- Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119334, Russia
| | - Marina L. Butovskaya
- Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119334, Russia
- Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, 125047, Russia
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2
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Vágási CI, Fülöp A, Osváth G, Pap PL, Pénzes J, Benkő Z, Lendvai ÁZ, Barta Z. Social groups with diverse personalities mitigate physiological stress in a songbird. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20203092. [PMID: 33499787 PMCID: PMC7893263 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.3092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Social groups often consist of diverse phenotypes, including personality types, and this diversity is known to affect the functioning of the group as a whole. Social selection theory proposes that group composition (i.e. social environment) also influences the performance of individual group members. However, the effect of group behavioural composition on group members remains largely unexplored, and it is still contentious whether individuals benefit more in a social environment with homogeneous or diverse behavioural composition. We experimentally formed groups of house sparrows Passer domesticus with high and low diversity of personality (exploratory behaviour), and found that their physiological state (body condition, physiological stress and oxidative damage) improved with increasing group-level diversity of personality. These findings demonstrate that group personality composition affects the condition of group members and individuals benefit from social heterosis (i.e. associating with a diverse set of behavioural types). This aspect of the social life can play a key role in affiliation rules of social animals and might explain the evolutionary coexistence of different personalities in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Csongor I. Vágási
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Attila Fülöp
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
- Juhász-Nagy Pál Doctoral School, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Gergely Osváth
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Museum of Zoology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Péter L. Pap
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Janka Pénzes
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Zoltán Benkő
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Romanian Ornithological Society/BirdLife Romania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Ádám Z. Lendvai
- Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Zoltán Barta
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
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3
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Gitschlag BL, Tate AT, Patel MR. Nutrient status shapes selfish mitochondrial genome dynamics across different levels of selection. eLife 2020; 9:56686. [PMID: 32959778 PMCID: PMC7508553 DOI: 10.7554/elife.56686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperation and cheating are widespread evolutionary strategies. While cheating confers an advantage to individual entities within a group, competition between groups favors cooperation. Selfish or cheater mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) proliferates within hosts while being selected against at the level of host fitness. How does environment shape cheater dynamics across different selection levels? Focusing on food availability, we address this question using heteroplasmic Caenorhabditis elegans. We find that the proliferation of selfish mtDNA within hosts depends on nutrient status stimulating mtDNA biogenesis in the developing germline. Interestingly, mtDNA biogenesis is not sufficient for this proliferation, which also requires the stress-response transcription factor FoxO/DAF-16. At the level of host fitness, FoxO/DAF-16 also prevents food scarcity from accelerating the selection against selfish mtDNA. This suggests that the ability to cope with nutrient stress can promote host tolerance of cheaters. Our study delineates environmental effects on selfish mtDNA dynamics at different levels of selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bryan L Gitschlag
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
| | - Ann T Tate
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
| | - Maulik R Patel
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States.,Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, United States.,Diabetes Research and Training Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, United States
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4
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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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5
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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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6
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Fülöp A, Németh Z, Kocsis B, Deák-Molnár B, Bozsoky T, Barta Z. Personality and social foraging tactic use in free-living Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus). Behav Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractGroup-foraging individuals often use alternative behavioral tactics to acquire food: some individuals, the producers, actively search for food, whereas others, the scroungers, look for opportunities to exploit the finders’ discoveries. Although the use of social foraging tactics is partly flexible, yet some individuals tend to produce more, whereas others largely prefer to scrounge. This between-individual variation in tactic use closely resembles the phenomenon of animal personality; however, the connection between personality and social foraging tactic use has rarely been investigated in wild animals. Here, we studied this relationship in free-living Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus) during 2 winters. We found that in females, but not in males, social foraging tactic use was predicted by personality: more exploratory (i.e., more active in a novel environment) females scrounged more. Regardless of sex, the probability of scrounging increased with the density of individuals foraging on feeders and the time of feeding within a foraging bout, that is, the later the individual foraged within a foraging bout the higher the probability of scrounging was. Our results demonstrate that consistent individual behavioral differences are linked, in a sex-dependent manner, to group-level processes in the context of social foraging in free-living tree sparrows, suggesting that individual behavioral traits have implications for social evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Attila Fülöp
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Zoltán Németh
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Bianka Kocsis
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Bettina Deák-Molnár
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Tímea Bozsoky
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Zoltán Barta
- MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér, Debrecen, Hungary
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7
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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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8
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9
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Dumke M, Herberstein ME, Schneider JM. Advantages of social foraging in crab spiders: Groups capture more and larger prey despite the absence of a web. Ethology 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marlis Dumke
- Department of Biology, Zoological Institute and Museum; University Hamburg; Hamburg Germany
- Department of Biological Sciences; Macquarie University; North Ryde New South Wales Australia
| | - Marie E. Herberstein
- Department of Biological Sciences; Macquarie University; North Ryde New South Wales Australia
| | - Jutta M. Schneider
- Department of Biological Sciences; Macquarie University; North Ryde New South Wales Australia
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10
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Social tipping points in animal societies in response to heat stress. Nat Ecol Evol 2018; 2:1298-1305. [PMID: 29942021 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0592-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2018] [Accepted: 05/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Living systems sometimes experience abrupt tipping points in response to stress. Here we investigate the factors contributing to the appearance of such abrupt state transitions in animal societies. We first construct a mathematical account of how the personality compositions of societies could alter their propensity to shift from calm to violent states in response to thermal stress. To evaluate our model, we subjected experimental societies of the spider Anelosimus studiosus to heat stress. We demonstrate that both colony size and personality composition influence the timing of and recoverability from sudden transitions in social state. Groups composed of aggressive personalities transitioned into violent within-group dynamics sooner during heating, and also resisted recovery to baseline non-aggressive behaviour during cooling. We further observed hysteresis in groups composed of aggressive individuals, where group behaviour depended strongly on whether the colony had previously been in a calm or agitated state. These results demonstrate that a society's susceptibility to sudden state shifts and their recoverability from them can be driven by the personalities of their constituents.
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11
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Cortez MH. Genetic variation determines which feedbacks drive and alter predator-prey eco-evolutionary cycles. ECOL MONOGR 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael H. Cortez
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics; Utah State University; Logan Utah 84322 USA
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12
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Patel S, Cortez MH, Schreiber SJ. Partitioning the Effects of Eco-Evolutionary Feedbacks on Community Stability. Am Nat 2018. [DOI: 10.1086/695834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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13
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Kendall BE, Fox GA, Stover JP. Boldness-aggression syndromes can reduce population density: behavior and demographic heterogeneity. Behav Ecol 2017. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arx068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Bruce E Kendall
- Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Gordon A Fox
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Joseph P Stover
- Department of Mathematics, Lyon College, Batesville, AR, USA
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14
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Intense group selection selects for ideal group compositions, but selection within groups maintains them. Anim Behav 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.11.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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15
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Dumke M, Herberstein ME, Schneider JM. Producers and scroungers: feeding-type composition changes with group size in a socially foraging spider. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 283:rspb.2016.0114. [PMID: 27075253 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2016] [Accepted: 03/17/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In groups of socially foraging animals, feeding behaviour may change with group size in response to varying cost-benefit trade-offs. Numerous studies have described group-size effects on group-average feeding behaviour, particularly emphasizing an increase in scrounging incidence for larger groups, where individuals (scroungers) feed from the food sources others (producers) discovered. However, individual variation in feeding behaviour remains unconsidered in the vast majority of these studies even though theoretical models predict individuals to specialize in feeding tactic and anticipate higher scrounger-type frequencies in larger groups. We combined group-level and individual-level analyses of group-size effects on social foraging in the subsocial spider Australomisidia ergandros Lending novel experimental support to model predictions, we found that individuals specialize in feeding tactic and that higher scrounging and lower producing incidence in larger groups were mediated through shifts in the ratio of feeding types. Further, feeding-type specialization was not explained by innate individual differences in hunting ability as all feeding types were equally efficient in prey capture when foraging alone. Context adaptivity of feeding behaviour might allow this subsocial species to succeed under varying socioecological conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlis Dumke
- Biocenter Grindel, Zoological Institute, University of Hamburg, Martin Luther King Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia
| | - Marie E Herberstein
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia
| | - Jutta M Schneider
- Biocenter Grindel, Zoological Institute, University of Hamburg, Martin Luther King Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
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16
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Hall K, Brosnan SF. Cooperation and deception in primates. Infant Behav Dev 2016; 48:38-44. [PMID: 27865584 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2016] [Revised: 11/08/2016] [Accepted: 11/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Though competition and cooperation are often considered opposing forces in an arms race driving natural selection, many animals, including humans, cooperate in order to mitigate competition with others. Understanding others' psychological states, such as seeing and knowing, others' goals and intentions, and coordinating actions are all important for complex cooperation-as well as for predicting behavior in order to take advantage of others through tactical deception, a form of competition. We outline evidence of primates' understanding of how others perceive the world, and then consider how the evidence from both deception and cooperation fits this framework to give us a more complete understanding of the evolution of complex social cognition in primates. In experimental food competitions, primates flexibly manipulate group-mates' behavior to tactically deceive them. Deception can infiltrate cooperative interactions, such as when one takes an unfair share of meat after a coordinated hunt. In order to counter competition of this sort, primates maintain cooperation through partner choice, partner control, and third party punishment. Yet humans appear to stand alone in their ability to understand others' beliefs, which allows us not only to deceive others with the explicit intent to create a false belief, but it also allows us to put ourselves in others' shoes to determine when cheaters need to be punished, even if we are not directly disadvantaged by the cheater.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie Hall
- Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States.
| | - Sarah F Brosnan
- Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States; Departments of Psychology & Philosophy, Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, United States
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17
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Riehl C, Frederickson ME. Cheating and punishment in cooperative animal societies. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:20150090. [PMID: 26729930 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Cheaters-genotypes that gain a selective advantage by taking the benefits of the social contributions of others while avoiding the costs of cooperating-are thought to pose a major threat to the evolutionary stability of cooperative societies. In order for cheaters to undermine cooperation, cheating must be an adaptive strategy: cheaters must have higher fitness than cooperators, and their behaviour must reduce the fitness of their cooperative partners. It is frequently suggested that cheating is not adaptive because cooperators have evolved mechanisms to punish these behaviours, thereby reducing the fitness of selfish individuals. However, a simpler hypothesis is that such societies arise precisely because cooperative strategies have been favoured over selfish ones-hence, behaviours that have been interpreted as 'cheating' may not actually result in increased fitness, even when they go unpunished. Here, we review the empirical evidence for cheating behaviours in animal societies, including cooperatively breeding vertebrates and social insects, and we ask whether such behaviours are primarily limited by punishment. Our review suggests that both cheating and punishment are probably rarer than often supposed. Uncooperative individuals typically have lower, not higher, fitness than cooperators; and when evidence suggests that cheating may be adaptive, it is often limited by frequency-dependent selection rather than by punishment. When apparently punitive behaviours do occur, it remains an open question whether they evolved in order to limit cheating, or whether they arose before the evolution of cooperation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Riehl
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106A Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Megan E Frederickson
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B2
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18
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Sharpe RV, Avilés L. Prey size and scramble vs. contest competition in a social spider: implications for population dynamics. J Anim Ecol 2016; 85:1401-10. [PMID: 27300160 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2015] [Accepted: 06/07/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
There are many benefits of group living, but also substantial costs, one of which is competition for resources. How scarce food resources are distributed among different members of a population or social group - whether via scramble or contest competition - can influence not only the variance in individual fitness, but also the stability and therefore survival of the group or population. Attributes of the food resources themselves, such as their size, may influence the type of intraspecific competition that occurs and therefore the intrinsic stability of a group or population. By experimentally manipulating the size of prey fed to artificial colonies of the social spider Anelosimus eximius, we investigated whether prey size could alter the degree of scramble vs. contest competition that takes place and, thus, potentially influence colony population dynamics. We found that large prey were shared more evenly than small prey and that individuals in poor condition were more likely to feed when prey were large than when prey were small. Additionally, we show that individuals participating in prey capture are also more likely to feed on the captured prey. We developed a simple mathematical model to explore the prey sizes that would be energetically worth defending, i.e. prey that are 'economically defendable'. The model shows that neither very small prey, nor prey above a certain size is worth monopolizing, with only intermediate size prey being 'economically defendable'. We therefore suggest the small and large prey in our experiment corresponds to our model's intermediate and large prey categories, respectively. As the size of prey captured by social spider colonies increases with colony size, our findings suggest that scramble competition may predominate in large colonies. Scramble competition, combined with the fact that prey biomass per capita declines as colonies grow beyond a certain size, would then explain why extremely large colonies of this social spider may suddenly go extinct. Our project thus illustrates the potential triple link between characteristics of the resources, individual behaviour and population dynamics, a link rarely considered in an empirical setting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth V Sharpe
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Leticia Avilés
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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19
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Biernaskie JM, Foster KR. Ecology and multilevel selection explain aggression in spider colonies. Ecol Lett 2016; 19:873-9. [PMID: 27264438 PMCID: PMC4950442 DOI: 10.1111/ele.12622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2015] [Revised: 12/24/2015] [Accepted: 04/28/2016] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Progress in sociobiology continues to be hindered by abstract debates over methodology and the relative importance of within‐group vs. between‐group selection. We need concrete biological examples to ground discussions in empirical data. Recent work argued that the levels of aggression in social spider colonies are explained by group‐level adaptation. Here, we examine this conclusion using models that incorporate ecological detail while remaining consistent with kin‐ and multilevel selection frameworks. We show that although levels of aggression are driven, in part, by between‐group selection, incorporating universal within‐group competition provides a striking fit to the data that is inconsistent with pure group‐level adaptation. Instead, our analyses suggest that aggression is favoured primarily as a selfish strategy to compete for resources, despite causing lower group foraging efficiency or higher risk of group extinction. We argue that sociobiology will benefit from a pluralistic approach and stronger links between ecologically informed models and data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jay M Biernaskie
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK OX1 3RB, UK
| | - Kevin R Foster
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK OX1 3PS, UK
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20
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Leighton GM, Echeverri S, Heinrich D, Kolberg H. Relatedness predicts multiple measures of investment in cooperative nest construction in sociable weavers. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2015; 69:1835-1843. [PMID: 26726282 PMCID: PMC4693614 DOI: 10.1007/s00265-015-1996-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Although communal goods are often critical to society, they are simultaneously susceptible to exploitation and are evolutionarily stable only if mechanisms exist to curtail exploitation. Mechanisms such as punishment and kin selection have been offered as general explanations for how communal resources can be maintained. Evidence for these mechanisms comes largely from humans and social insects, leaving their generality in question. To assess how communal resources are maintained, we observed cooperative nest construction in sociable weavers (Philetairus socius). The communal nest of sociable weavers provides thermal benefits for all individuals but requires continual maintenance. We observed cooperative nest construction and also recorded basic morphological characteristics. We also collected blood samples, performed next-generation sequencing, and isolated 2358 variable single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to estimate relatedness. We find that relatedness predicts investment in cooperative nest construction, while no other morphological characters significantly explain cooperative output. We argue that indirect benefits are a critical fitness component for maintaining the cooperative behavior that maintains the communal good.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gavin M. Leighton
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Sebastian Echeverri
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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22
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Pruitt JN, Modlmeier AP. Animal personality in a foundation species drives community divergence and collapse in the wild. J Anim Ecol 2015; 84:1461-8. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2015] [Accepted: 05/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N. Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh PA 15260 USA
| | - Andreas P. Modlmeier
- Department of Biological Sciences; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh PA 15260 USA
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23
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Lichtenstein JLL, Pruitt JN. Similar patterns of frequency-dependent selection on animal personalities emerge in three species of social spiders. J Evol Biol 2015; 28:1248-56. [DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2015] [Accepted: 04/28/2015] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - J. N. Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh PA USA
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24
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Lankau RA, Strauss SY. Newly rare or newly common: evolutionary feedbacks through changes in population density and relative species abundance, and their management implications. Evol Appl 2015; 4:338-53. [PMID: 25567977 PMCID: PMC3352561 DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00173.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2010] [Accepted: 11/18/2010] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Environmental management typically seeks to increase or maintain the population sizes of desirable species and to decrease population sizes of undesirable pests, pathogens, or invaders. With changes in population size come long-recognized changes in ecological processes that act in a density-dependent fashion. While the ecological effects of density dependence have been well studied, the evolutionary effects of changes in population size, via changes in ecological interactions with community members, are underappreciated. Here, we provide examples of changing selective pressures on, or evolution in, species as a result of changes in either density of conspecifics or changes in the frequency of heterospecific versus conspecific interactions. We also discuss the management implications of such evolutionary responses in species that have experienced rapid increases or decreases in density caused by human actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard A Lankau
- Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA ; Department of Evolution and Ecology UC Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Sharon Y Strauss
- Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA ; Department of Evolution and Ecology UC Davis, Davis, CA, USA
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25
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Holbrook CT, Wright CM, Pruitt JN. RETRACTED: Individual differences in personality and behavioural plasticity facilitate division of labour in social spider colonies. Anim Behav 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.09.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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26
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Pruitt JN, Goodnight CJ. Site-specific group selection drives locally adapted group compositions. Nature 2014; 514:359-62. [PMID: 25274310 DOI: 10.1038/nature13811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2014] [Accepted: 08/29/2014] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Group selection may be defined as selection caused by the differential extinction or proliferation of groups. The socially polymorphic spider Anelosimus studiosus exhibits a behavioural polymorphism in which females exhibit either a 'docile' or 'aggressive' behavioural phenotype. Natural colonies are composed of a mixture of related docile and aggressive individuals, and populations differ in colonies' characteristic docile:aggressive ratios. Using experimentally constructed colonies of known composition, here we demonstrate that population-level divergence in docile:aggressive ratios is driven by site-specific selection at the group level--certain ratios yield high survivorship at some sites but not others. Our data also indicate that colonies responded to the risk of extinction: perturbed colonies tended to adjust their composition over two generations to match the ratio characteristic of their native site, thus promoting their long-term survival in their natal habitat. However, colonies of displaced individuals continued to shift their compositions towards mixtures that would have promoted their survival had they remained at their home sites, regardless of their contemporary environment. Thus, the regulatory mechanisms that colonies use to adjust their composition appear to be locally adapted. Our data provide experimental evidence of group selection driving collective traits in wild populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
| | - Charles J Goodnight
- Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405, USA
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27
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Bengston SE, Pruitt JN, Riechert SE. Differences in environmental enrichment generate contrasting behavioural syndromes in a basal spider lineage. Anim Behav 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.04.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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28
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Wright CM, Holbrook CT, Pruitt JN. Animal personality aligns task specialization and task proficiency in a spider society. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014; 111:9533-7. [PMID: 24979771 PMCID: PMC4084461 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1400850111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Classic theory on division of labor implicitly assumes that task specialists are more proficient at their jobs than generalists and specialists in other tasks; however, recent data suggest that this might not hold for societies that lack discrete worker polymorphisms, which constitute the vast majority of animal societies. The facultatively social spider Anelosimus studiosus lacks castes, but females exhibit either a "docile" or "aggressive" phenotype. Here we observed the propensity of individual females of either phenotype to perform various tasks (i.e., prey capture, web building, parental care, and colony defense) in mixed-phenotype colonies. We then measured the performance outcomes of singleton individuals of either phenotype at each task to determine their proficiencies. Aggressive females participated more in prey capture, web building, and colony defense, whereas docile females engaged more in parental care. In staged trials, aggressive individuals were more effective at capturing prey, constructing webs, and defending the colony, whereas docile females were more effective at rearing large quantities of brood. Thus, individuals' propensity to perform tasks and their task proficiencies appear to be adaptively aligned in this system. Moreover, because the docile/aggressive phenotypes are heritable, these data suggest that within-colony variation is maintained because of advantages gleaned by division of labor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin M Wright
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; and
| | - C Tate Holbrook
- Department of Natural Sciences, College of Coastal Georgia, Brunswick, GA 31520
| | - Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; and
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29
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Pruitt JN, Keiser CN. The personality types of key catalytic individuals shape colonies' collective behaviour and success. Anim Behav 2014; 93:87-95. [PMID: 32287335 PMCID: PMC7119443 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.04.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2014] [Revised: 03/10/2014] [Accepted: 04/02/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Behavioural ecologists often note that one or a few group members appear to shape the collective behaviour of social groups differentially. Our understanding of these keystone individuals is largely taken from meticulous field observations and semi-scientific anecdotes. In this study we experimentally test whether the behavioural tendencies of putative keystone individuals shift the collective behaviour of colonies using the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola. Prior studies on Stegodyphus demonstrated that the single best predictor of colonies' collective behaviour is the behaviour of colonies' boldest individual. Here, we probe the causal relationship between the traits of extremely bold individuals and colonies' collective behaviour by experimentally creating colonies of identical size and personality composition in the laboratory and then adding a single individual of varying boldness (the putative keystone individual). Experimentally adding just one extremely bold individual increased the foraging aggressiveness of entire colonies and altered the total mass gained by fellow group members, relative to the addition of a less bold individual. Additionally, our data suggest that bold individuals are capable of such influence because they catalyse variation in the behavioural tendencies of fellow group members.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A
| | - Carl N Keiser
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A
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Keiser CN, Pruitt JN. Spider aggressiveness determines the bidirectional consequences of host-inquiline interactions. Behav Ecol 2013. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/art096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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32
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RETRACTED: Linking levels of personality: personalities of the ‘average’ and ‘most extreme’ group members predict colony-level personality. Anim Behav 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.05.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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33
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Jandt JM, Bengston S, Pinter-Wollman N, Pruitt JN, Raine NE, Dornhaus A, Sih A. Behavioural syndromes and social insects: personality at multiple levels. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2013; 89:48-67. [PMID: 23672739 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 205] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2012] [Revised: 04/09/2013] [Accepted: 04/17/2013] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Animal personalities or behavioural syndromes are consistent and/or correlated behaviours across two or more situations within a population. Social insect biologists have measured consistent individual variation in behaviour within and across colonies for decades. The goal of this review is to illustrate the ways in which both the study of social insects and of behavioural syndromes has overlapped, and to highlight ways in which both fields can move forward through the synergy of knowledge from each. Here we, (i) review work to date on behavioural syndromes (though not always referred to as such) in social insects, and discuss mechanisms and fitness effects of maintaining individual behavioural variation within and between colonies; (ii) summarise approaches and principles from studies of behavioural syndromes, such as trade-offs, feedback, and statistical methods developed specifically to study behavioural consistencies and correlations, and discuss how they might be applied specifically to the study of social insects; (iii) discuss how the study of social insects can enhance our understanding of behavioural syndromes-research in behavioural syndromes is beginning to explore the role of sociality in maintaining or developing behavioural types, and work on social insects can provide new insights in this area; and (iv) suggest future directions for study, with an emphasis on examining behavioural types at multiple levels of organisation (genes, individuals, colonies, or groups of individuals).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer M Jandt
- Department of Ecology, Evolutionary and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA
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34
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Pruitt JN. A real-time eco-evolutionary dead-end strategy is mediated by the traits of lineage progenitors and interactions with colony invaders. Ecol Lett 2013; 16:879-86. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.12123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2012] [Revised: 01/10/2013] [Accepted: 04/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N. Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania; 15260; USA
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35
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Datta MS, Korolev KS, Cvijovic I, Dudley C, Gore J. Range expansion promotes cooperation in an experimental microbial metapopulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2013; 110:7354-9. [PMID: 23569263 PMCID: PMC3645579 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1217517110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Natural populations throughout the tree of life undergo range expansions in response to changes in the environment. Recent theoretical work suggests that range expansions can have a strong effect on evolution, even leading to the fixation of deleterious alleles that would normally be outcompeted in the absence of migration. However, little is known about how range expansions might influence alleles under frequency- or density-dependent selection. Moreover, there is very little experimental evidence to complement existing theory, since expanding populations are difficult to study in the natural environment. In this study, we have used a yeast experimental system to explore the effect of range expansions on the maintenance of cooperative behaviors, which commonly display frequency- and density-dependent selection and are widespread in nature. We found that range expansions favor the maintenance of cooperation in two ways: (i) through the enrichment of cooperators at the front of the expanding population and (ii) by allowing cooperators to "outrun" an invading wave of defectors. In this system, cooperation is enhanced through the coupling of population ecology and evolutionary dynamics in expanding populations, thus providing experimental evidence for a unique mechanism through which cooperative behaviors could be maintained in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kirill S. Korolev
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; and
| | - Ivana Cvijovic
- Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
| | - Carmel Dudley
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; and
| | - Jeff Gore
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; and
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36
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Pruitt JN, Oufiero CE, Avilés L, Riechert SE. Iterative evolution of increased behavioral variation characterizes the transition to sociality in spiders and proves advantageous. Am Nat 2012; 180:496-510. [PMID: 22976012 DOI: 10.1086/667576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
The evolution of group living is regarded as a major evolutionary transition and is commonly met with correlated shifts in ancillary characters. We tested for associations between social tendency and a myriad of abiotic variables (e.g., temperature and precipitation) and behavioral traits (e.g., boldness, activity level, and aggression) in a clade of spiders that exhibit highly variable social structures (genus Anelosimus). We found that, relative to their subsocial relatives, social species tended to exhibit reduced aggressiveness toward prey, increased fearfulness toward predators, and reduced activity levels, and they tended to occur in warm, wet habitats with low average wind velocities. Within-species variation in aggressiveness and boldness was also positively associated with sociality. We then assessed the functional consequences of within-species trait variation on reconstituted colonies of four test species (Anelosimus eximius, Anelosimus rupununi, Anelosimus guacamayos, and Anelosimus oritoyacu). We used colonies consisting of known ratios of docile versus aggressive individuals and group foraging success as a measure of colony performance. In all four test species, we found that groups composed of a mixture of docile and aggressive individuals outperformed monotypic groups. Mixed groups were more effective at subduing medium and large prey, and mixed groups collectively gained more mass during shared feeding events. Our results suggest that the iterative evolution of depressed aggressiveness and increased within-species behavioral variation in social spiders is advantageous and could be an adaptation to group living that is analogous to the formation of morphological castes within the social insects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
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37
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38
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Pruitt JN. Behavioural traits of colony founders affect the life history of their colonies. Ecol Lett 2012; 15:1026-32. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01825.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2012] [Revised: 04/17/2012] [Accepted: 05/24/2012] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N. Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania; 15260; USA
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39
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Wolf M, McNamara JM. On the evolution of personalities via frequency-dependent selection. Am Nat 2012; 179:679-92. [PMID: 22617258 DOI: 10.1086/665656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Personality differences can be found in a wide range of species across the animal kingdom, but why natural selection gave rise to such differences remains an open question. Frequency-dependent selection is a potent mechanism explaining variation; it does not explain, however, the other two key features associated with personalities, consistency and correlations. Using the hawk-dove game and a frequency-dependent foraging game as examples, we here show that this changes fundamentally whenever one takes into account the physiological architecture underlying behavior (e.g., metabolism). We find that the inclusion of physiology changes the evolutionary predictions concerning consistency and correlations: while selection gives rise to inconsistent individuals and stochastically fluctuating behavioral correlations in scenarios that neglect physiology, we find high levels of behavioral consistency and tight and stable trait correlations in scenarios that incorporate physiology. The coevolution of behavioral and physiological traits also gives rise to adaptive physiological differences that are systematically associated with behavioral differences. As well as providing a framework for understanding behavioral consistency and behavioral correlations, our work thus also provides an explanation for systematic physiological differences within populations, a phenomenon that appears to exist in a wide range of species but that, up to now, has been poorly understood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Max Wolf
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Mueggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany.
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40
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Sih
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California at Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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41
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Pruitt JN, Iturralde G, Avilés L, Riechert SE. Amazonian social spiders share similar within-colony behavioural variation and behavioural syndromes. Anim Behav 2011. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.09.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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42
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Pruitt JN, Burghardt GM, Riechert SE. Non-Conceptive Sexual Behavior in Spiders: A Form of Play Associated with Body Condition, Personality Type, and Male Intrasexual Selection. Ethology 2011. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.01980.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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43
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Pruitt JN, Cote J, Ferrari MCO. Behavioural trait variants in a habitat-forming species dictate the nature of its interactions with and among heterospecifics. Funct Ecol 2011. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01922.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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44
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Pruitt JN, Ferrari MCO. Intraspecific trait variants determine the nature of interspecific interactions in a habitat-forming species. Ecology 2011; 92:1902-8. [DOI: 10.1890/11-0701.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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45
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Pruitt JN, Riechert SE, Harris DJ. Reproductive consequences of male body mass and aggressiveness depend on females’ behavioral types. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2011. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-011-1205-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
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46
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Powers ST, Penn AS, Watson RA. THE CONCURRENT EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION AND THE POPULATION STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT IT. Evolution 2011; 65:1527-43. [PMID: 21644946 DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01250.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Simon T Powers
- Science & Engineering of Natural Systems Group, School of Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
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47
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Pruitt JN, Demes KW, Dittrich-Reed DR. Temperature Mediates Shifts in Individual Aggressiveness, Activity Level, and Social Behavior in a Spider. Ethology 2011. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.01877.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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48
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Within-group behavioral variation promotes biased task performance and the emergence of a defensive caste in a social spider. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2010; 65:1055-1060. [PMID: 21625651 PMCID: PMC3078319 DOI: 10.1007/s00265-010-1112-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2010] [Revised: 11/01/2010] [Accepted: 11/04/2010] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
The social spider Anelosimus studiosus exhibits a behavioral polymorphism where colony members express either a passive, tolerant behavioral tendency (social) or an aggressive, intolerant behavioral tendency (asocial). Here we test whether asocial individuals act as colony defenders by deflecting the suite of foreign (i.e., heterospecific) spider species that commonly exploit multi-female colonies. We (1) determined whether the phenotypic composition of colonies is associated with foreign spider abundance, (2) tested whether heterospecific spider abundance and diversity affect colony survival in the field, and (3) performed staged encounters between groups of A. studiosus and their colony-level predator Agelenopsis emertoni (A. emertoni)to determine whether asocial females exhibit more defensive behavior. We found that larger colonies harbor more foreign spiders, and the number of asocial colony members was negatively associated with foreign spider abundance. Additionally, colony persistence was negatively associated with the abundance and diversity of foreign spiders within colonies. In encounters with a colony-level predator, asocial females were more likely to exhibit escalatory behavior, and this might explain the negative association between the frequency of asocial females and the presence of foreign spider associates. Together, our results indicate that foreign spiders are detrimental to colony survival, and that asocial females play a defensive role in multi-female colonies.
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49
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Pruitt JN, Riechert SE. How within-group behavioural variation and task efficiency enhance fitness in a social group. Proc Biol Sci 2010; 278:1209-15. [PMID: 20943687 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 147] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
How task specialization, individual task performance and within-group behavioural variation affects fitness is a longstanding and unresolved problem in our understanding of animal societies. In the temperate social spider, Anelosimus studiosus, colony members exhibit a behavioural polymorphism; females either exhibit an aggressive 'asocial' or docile 'social' phenotype. We assessed individual prey-capture success for both phenotypes, and the role of phenotypic composition on group-level prey-capture success for three prey size classes. We then estimated the effect of group phenotypic composition on fitness in a common garden, as inferred from individual egg-case masses. On average, asocial females were more successful than social females at capturing large prey, and colony-level prey-capture success was positively associated with the frequency of the asocial phenotype. Asocial colony members were also more likely to engage in prey-capture behaviour in group-foraging situations. Interestingly, our fitness estimates indicate females of both phenotypes experience increased fitness when occupying colonies containing unlike individuals. These results imply a reciprocal fitness benefit of within-colony behavioural variation, and perhaps division of labour in a spider society.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1610, USA.
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50
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PRUITT JONATHANN, RIECHERT SUSANE, ITURRALDE GABRIEL, VEGA MAURICIO, FITZPATRICK BENJAMINM, AVILÉS LETICIA. Population differences in behaviour are explained by shared within-population trait correlations. J Evol Biol 2010; 23:748-56. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.01940.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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