Search results for "Social animal"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
Sublethal doses of spinosad affects sexual and gregarious behavior of Blattella germanica (Dictyoptera, Blattellidae)
2011
Sublethal doses of spinosad affects sexual and gregarious behavior of Blattella germanica (Dictyoptera, Blattellidae). 7. Ecology and behaviour meeting
Speed-accuracy trade-off and its consequences in a scramble competition context.
2014
Abstract: Animals foraging in groups commonly respond to the presence of others by increasing their foraging rate, an increase that could come at the expense of prey detection accuracy. Yet the existence and consequences of such so-called 'speed-accuracy trade-offs' in group-foraging animals remain unexplored. We used group-feeding zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, to determine how search speed affects food detection accuracy and how a potential speed-accuracy trade-off influences feeding success. We found significant between-individual differences in hopping speed as well as evidence that faster individuals were more likely to overlook food, demonstrating the existence of a trade-off bet…
The adaptive value of tandem communication in ants:Insights from an agent-based model
2021
AbstractSocial animals often share information about the location of resources, such as a food source or a new nest-site. One well-studied communication strategy in ants is tandem running, whereby a leader guides a recruit to a resource. Tandem running is considered an example of animal teaching because a leader adjusts her behaviour and invests time to help another ant to learn the location of a resource more efficiently. Tandem running also has costs, such as waiting inside the nest for a leader and a reduced walking speed. Whether and when these costs outweigh the benefits of tandem running is not well understood. We developed an agent-based simulation model to investigate the conditions…
Use of waggle dance information in honey bees is linked to gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain.
2021
AbstractCommunication is essential for social animals, but deciding how to utilize information provided by conspecifics is a complex process that depends on environmental and intrinsic factors. Honey bees use a unique form of communication, the waggle dance, to inform nestmates about the location of food sources. However, as in many other animals, experienced individuals often ignore this social information and prefer to rely on prior experiences, i.e. private information. The neurosensory factors that drive the decision to use social information are not yet understood. Here we test whether the decision to use social dance information or private information is linked to gene expression diff…
Social isolation causes downregulation of immune and stress response genes and behavioural changes in a social insect
2021
Humans and other social mammals experience isolation from their group as stressful, triggering behavioural and physiological anomalies that reduce fitness. While social isolation has been intensely studied in social mammals, it is less clear how social insects, which evolved sociality independently, respond to isolation. Here we examined whether the typical mammalian responses to social isolation, e.g., an impaired ability to interact socially and immune suppression are also found in social insects. We studied the consequences of social isolation on behaviour and brain gene expression in the ant Temnothorax nylanderi. Following isolation, workers interacted moderately less with adult nestma…
Reproductive conflict delays the recovery of an endangered social species
2008
1. Evolutionary theory predicts that individuals, in order to increase their relative fitness, can evolve behaviours that are detrimental for the group or population. This mismatch is particularly visible in social organisms. Despite its potential to affect the population dynamics of social animals, this principle has not yet been applied to real-life conservation. 2. Social group structure has been argued to stabilize population dynamics due to the buffering effects of nonreproducing subordinates. However, competition for breeding positions in such species can also interfere with the reproduction of breeding pairs. 3. Seychelles magpie robins, Copsychus sechellarum, live in social groups w…