Ants Co-Occurring with Predatory Antlions Show Unsuccessful Rescue Behavior towards Captured Nestmates

Turza, Filip; Zuber, Gabriela; Bzoma, Michał; Prus, Marzena; Filipiak, Michał; Miler, Krzysztof

doi:10.1007/s10905-020-09739-9

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Social facilitation of learning has been described for several species ( Bond and Titus, 1983 ; Zion et al, 2007 ; Lipina and Roder, 2013 ; Demolliens et al, 2017 ; Lau et al, 2019 ), including laboratory rats ( Gardner and Engel, 1971 ; Becker and Franks, 1975 ; Varlinskaya and Spear, 2009 ; Gipson et al, 2011 ; Dorfman et al, 2016 ). Hollis and Nowbahari (2013) , Hollis et al (2015) , and Turza et al (2020) investigated conspecific rescue behavior in ants, suggesting that sharing the environment with predators facilitates the expression of these behaviors, although non-rescuer species also seem able to display these. In this study, the presence of a trapped conspecific probably played the role of facilitation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are There Multiple Motivators for Helping Behavior in Rats?

Silva

Lima

et al. 2020

Front. Psychol.

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Empathy is the ability to (a) be affected by and share the emotional state of another; (b) assess the reasons for the other’s state; and (c) identify with the other, adopting their perspective. This phenomenon has been shown to exist in several species and is proposed as a motivator for prosocial behavior. The experimental study of this feature in laboratory rodents is a more viable alternative in comparison to wild animals. A recent report showed that rats opened a door to free their cage mate from a restraint box. Although this behavior has been suggested to be motivated by empathy, this fact has been questioned by several studies that proposed other motivators for the releasing behavior. In the present study, we use an adaptation of the protocol of releasing behavior to investigate aspects of empathy and pro-sociality such as familiarity and reciprocity. In addition, we addressed some potential motivational factors that could influence this behavior. The main results showed that (1) rats opened the restraint box to free conspecifics most of the time; (2) direct reciprocity or past restriction experience did not improve releasing performance, probably due to a ceiling effect; (3) after a series of trials in the presence of a restricted conspecific, the free rat continues to open the restraint box even if it is empty; (4) in general, the opening performance improves across trials and phases, resembling learning curves; (5) if the first series of trials occurs with the empty box, the opening behavior does not occur and is modest in subsequent trials with a trapped animal; (6) the exploratory drive toward the restraint box and desire for social contact do not seem to function as key motivators for releasing behavior. In conclusion, our findings do not support that the opening behavior is exclusively related to empathic motivation. While multiple factors might be involved, our study suggests that task learning triggered (and possibly reinforced) by the presence of the restricted rat can function as a motivator. Further investigations are required to fully understand the mechanisms and motivation factors guiding the releasing behavior.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are There Multiple Motivators for Helping Behavior in Rats?

Silva

Lima

et al. 2020

Front. Psychol.

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“…Interestingly, for the dragonfly–newt system, heat waves have been demonstrated to affect trophic interactions by diminishing predation rates ( Smolinský and Gvoždik 2014 ). Antlions are involved in a trophic interaction or, more specifically, a predator–prey interaction with ants, which are their main prey ( Morrison 2004 ; Barkae et al 2017 ; Jingu and Hayashi 2018 ; Turza et al 2020 ). It would be interesting to investigate how the effects of heat waves, demonstrated here, shape this particular system in terms of predation rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we used predatory trap-building antlions (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) to investigate their behavioral response to a simulated heat wave and its subsequent effects. Antlions spend the majority of their lives as sit-and-wait predatory larvae characterized by low dispersion and a sedentary lifestyle, during which most species inhabit sandy areas where they construct pitfall traps to hunt small invertebrates, such as ants ( Scharf and Ovadia 2006 ; Turza et al 2020 ). Thus, antlions seem to be prone to strong selection by various abiotic features, including temperature, which makes them ideal models for the present study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat wave effects on the behavior and life-history traits of sedentary antlions

2020

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Research on the behavioral responses of animals to extreme weather events, such as heat wave, is lacking even though their frequency and intensity in nature are increasing. Here, we investigated the behavioral response to a simulated heat wave in two species of antlions (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae). These insects spend the majority of their lives as larvae and live in sandy areas suitable for a trap-building hunting strategy. We used larvae of Myrmeleon bore and Euroleon nostras, which are characterized by different microhabitat preferences—sunlit in the case of M. bore and shaded in the case of E. nostras. Larvae were exposed to fluctuating temperatures (40 °C for 10 h daily and 25 °C for the remaining time) or a constant temperature (25 °C) for an entire week. We found increased mortality of larvae under heat. We detected a reduction in the hunting activity of larvae under heat, which corresponded to changes in the body mass of individuals. Furthermore, we found long-term consequences of the simulated heat wave, as it prolonged the time larvae needed to molt. These effects were pronounced in the case of E. nostras but did not occur or were less pronounced in the case of M. bore, suggesting that microhabitat-specific selective pressures dictate how well antlions handle heat waves. We, thus, present results demonstrating the connection between behavior and the subsequent changes to fitness-relevant traits in the context of a simulated heat wave. These results illustrate how even closely related species may react differently to the same event.

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“…However, it is still difficult to generalize the significance of many potential drivers of trap construction in this group of insects, probably due to the species-specific characteristics of these effects. Indeed, some antlion species exclusively inhabit shaded areas, whereas others inhabit well-lit areas; the two groups differ in thermal tolerance [ 7 , 8 ] and the type and abundance of prey [ 9 , 10 ] and show different responses to some fundamental environmental factors, such as thermal conditions and feeding rates [ 11 ]. For example, shade-occupying Myrmeleon hyalinus antlions are more susceptible to starvation than Cueta lineosa antlions, which inhabit open areas exposed to direct sunlight; this explains why the former species prefers sites with more abundant prey [ 12 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Past thermal conditions affect hunting behaviour in larval antlions

Miler

Czarnołęski

2021

R. Soc. open sci.

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Some sit-and-wait predators, such as antlion larvae, construct traps to capture passing prey. The location of these traps depends on many abiotic and biotic factors, including temperature and the presence of conspecifics, which probably stimulate behaviours that minimize the costs and maximize the benefits of trap building. Here, we exposed second instar antlion larvae to elevated temperatures of 25°C (mild treatment) or 31°C (harsh treatment) for one month and then transferred them to common conditions (20°C) to examine the effects of previous thermal treatment on aggregation tendency and trap size. We predicted that antlions that experienced harsh conditions would subsequently increase the neighbouring distance and trap diameter to reduce competition with conspecifics and improve prey capture success, compensating for past conditions. In contrast with these predictions, antlions exposed to harsh conditions displayed a trend in the opposite direction, towards the decreased neighbouring distance. Furthermore, some of these antlions also built smaller traps. We discuss possible reasons for our results. The effects of previous thermal exposure have rarely been considered in terms of trap construction in antlions. Described effects may possibly apply to other sit-and-wait predators and are significant considering that many of these predators are long-lived.

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Ants Co-Occurring with Predatory Antlions Show Unsuccessful Rescue Behavior towards Captured Nestmates

Cited by 15 publications

References 36 publications

Are There Multiple Motivators for Helping Behavior in Rats?

Are There Multiple Motivators for Helping Behavior in Rats?

Heat wave effects on the behavior and life-history traits of sedentary antlions

Past thermal conditions affect hunting behaviour in larval antlions

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