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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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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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Rapid environmental change in games: complications and counter-intuitive outcomes. Sci Rep 2019; 9:7373. [PMID: 31089166 PMCID: PMC6517380 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-43770-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2018] [Accepted: 03/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) has recently led to alterations in the fitness and behavior of many organisms. Game theory is an important tool of behavioral ecology for analyzing evolutionary situations involving multiple individuals. However, game theory bypasses the details by which behavioral phenotypes are determined, taking the functional perspective straight from expected payoffs to predicted frequencies of behaviors. In contrast with optimization approaches, we identify that to use existing game theoretic models to predict HIREC effects, additional mechanistic details (or assumptions) will often be required. We illustrate this in relation to the hawk-dove game by showing that three different mechanisms, each of which support the same ESS prior to HIREC (fixed polymorphism, probabilistic choice, or cue dependency), can have a substantial effect on behavior (and success) following HIREC. Surprisingly, an increase in the value of resources can lead to a reduction in payoffs (and vice versa), both in the immediate- and long-term following HIREC. An increase in expected costs also increases expected payoffs. Along with these counter-intuitive findings, this work shows that simply understanding the behavioral payoffs of existing games is insufficient to make predictions about the effects of HIREC.
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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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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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Dijkstra PD, Border SE. How does male-male competition generate negative frequency-dependent selection and disruptive selection during speciation? Curr Zool 2018; 64:89-99. [PMID: 29492042 PMCID: PMC5809039 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zox079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2017] [Accepted: 12/16/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Natural selection has been shown to drive population differentiation and speciation. The role of sexual selection in this process is controversial; however, most of the work has centered on mate choice while the role of male-male competition in speciation is relatively understudied. Here, we outline how male-male competition can be a source of diversifying selection on male competitive phenotypes, and how this can contribute to the evolution of reproductive isolation. We highlight how negative frequency-dependent selection (advantage of rare phenotype arising from stronger male-male competition between similar male phenotypes compared with dissimilar male phenotypes) and disruptive selection (advantage of extreme phenotypes) drives the evolution of diversity in competitive traits such as weapon size, nuptial coloration, or aggressiveness. We underscore that male-male competition interacts with other life-history functions and that variable male competitive phenotypes may represent alternative adaptive options. In addition to competition for mates, aggressive interference competition for ecological resources can exert selection on competitor signals. We call for a better integration of male-male competition with ecological interference competition since both can influence the process of speciation via comparable but distinct mechanisms. Altogether, we present a more comprehensive framework for studying the role of male-male competition in speciation, and emphasize the need for better integration of insights gained from other fields studying the evolutionary, behavioral, and physiological consequences of agonistic interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter D Dijkstra
- Department of Biology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, USA
| | - Shana E Border
- Department of Biology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, USA
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Lichtenstein JLL, Chism GT, Kamath A, Pruitt JN. Intraindividual Behavioral Variability Predicts Foraging Outcome in a Beach-dwelling Jumping Spider. Sci Rep 2017; 7:18063. [PMID: 29273746 PMCID: PMC5741732 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-18359-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2017] [Accepted: 12/06/2017] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Animal personality, defined as consistent differences between individuals in behavior, has been the subject of hundreds if not thousands of papers. However, little work explores the fitness consequences of variation in behavior within individuals, or intraindividual variability (IIV). We probe the effects of behavioral IIV on predator-prey interaction outcomes in beach-dwelling jumping spiders (Terralonus californicus). Prior studies have found that spiders with higher body condition (body mass relative to size) behave more variably. Thus, we hypothesized that jumping spider activity level IIV would relate positively to foraging performance. To address this, we tested for associations between activity IIV, average activity level, and two measures of foraging success in laboratory mesocosms: change in spider mass and the number of prey killed. Activity IIV positively correlated with the mass that spiders gained from prey, but not with the number of prey killed. This suggests that spiders with high IIV consumed a greater proportion of their prey or used less energy. Interestingly, average activity level (personality) predicted neither metric of foraging success, indicating that behavioral IIV can predict metrics of success that personality does not. Therefore, our findings suggest that IIV should be considered alongside personality in studies of predator-prey interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- James L L Lichtenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA.
| | - Gregory T Chism
- Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology and Insect Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Ambika Kamath
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Jonathan N Pruitt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
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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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Lichtenstein JL, Wright CM, Luscuskie LP, Montgomery GA, Pinter-Wollman N, Pruitt JN. Participation in cooperative prey capture and the benefits gained from it are associated with individual personality. Curr Zool 2017; 63:561-567. [PMID: 29033979 PMCID: PMC5637736 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zow097] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2016] [Accepted: 09/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In animal societies, behavioral idiosyncrasies of the individuals often guide which tasks they should perform. Such personality-specific task participation can increase individual task efficiency, thereby improving group performance. While several recent studies have documented group-level benefits of within-group behavioral (i.e., personality) diversity, how these benefits are realized at the individual level is unclear. Here we probe the individual-level benefits of personality-driven task participation in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola. In S. dumicola, the presence of at least one highly bold individual catalyzes foraging behavior in shy colony members, and all group constituents heavily compete for prey. We assessed boldness by examining how quickly spiders resumed normal movement after a simulated predator attack. We test here whether (1) participants in collective foraging gain more mass from prey items and (2) whether bold individuals are less resistant to starvation than shy spiders, which would motivate the bold individuals to forage more. Next, we assembled colonies of shy spiders with and without a bold individual, added one prey item, and then tracked the mass gain of each individual spider after this single feeding event. We found that spiders that participated in prey capture (whether bold or shy) gained more mass than nonparticipators, and colonies containing a single bold spider gained more total mass than purely shy colonies. We also found that bold spiders participated in more collective foraging events and were more susceptible to starvation than shy spiders, suggesting that the aggressive foraging of bold individuals may represent a strategy to offset starvation risk. These findings add to the body of evidence that animal personality can shape social organization, individual performance, and group success.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Colin M. Wright
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - Lauren P. Luscuskie
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - Graham A. Montgomery
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
| | - Noa Pinter-Wollman
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USAand
| | - Jonathan N. Pruitt
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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12
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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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Yao Y, Storme V, Marchal K, Van de Peer Y. Emergent adaptive behaviour of GRN-controlled simulated robots in a changing environment. PeerJ 2016; 4:e2812. [PMID: 28028477 PMCID: PMC5180581 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.2812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2016] [Accepted: 11/21/2016] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
We developed a bio-inspired robot controller combining an artificial genome with an agent-based control system. The genome encodes a gene regulatory network (GRN) that is switched on by environmental cues and, following the rules of transcriptional regulation, provides output signals to actuators. Whereas the genome represents the full encoding of the transcriptional network, the agent-based system mimics the active regulatory network and signal transduction system also present in naturally occurring biological systems. Using such a design that separates the static from the conditionally active part of the gene regulatory network contributes to a better general adaptive behaviour. Here, we have explored the potential of our platform with respect to the evolution of adaptive behaviour, such as preying when food becomes scarce, in a complex and changing environment and show through simulations of swarm robots in an A-life environment that evolution of collective behaviour likely can be attributed to bio-inspired evolutionary processes acting at different levels, from the gene and the genome to the individual robot and robot population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yao Yao
- Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Bioinformatics Institute Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
| | | | - Kathleen Marchal
- Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Bioinformatics Institute Ghent, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Information Technology, iMinds, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Genetics, Genomics Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Yves Van de Peer
- Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Bioinformatics Institute Ghent, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Genetics, Genomics Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
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RETRACTED ARTICLE: Prolonged food restriction decreases body condition and reduces repeatability in personality traits in web-building spiders. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-016-2184-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register]
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Goulet CT, Ingley SJ, Scharf I, Pruitt JN. Thermal effects on survival and reproductive performance vary according to personality type. Behav Ecol 2016. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arw084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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Liedtke J, Redekop D, Schneider JM, Schuett W. Early Environmental Conditions Shape Personality Types in a Jumping Spider. Front Ecol Evol 2015. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2015.00134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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