Cooperation in the neotropical pseudoscorpion, Paratemnoides nidificator (Balzan, 1888): feeding and dispersal behavior

Abstract

Social behavior is rare among arachnids, and "permanent-sociality" is a strategy documented only in a few spider species. Here we describe the feeding and dispersal behavior of Paratemnoides nidificator, a Neotropical pseudoscorpion presenting "non-territorial permanent-sociality". Field and laboratory observations (100 hours and 200 sessions over four years) and manipulative experiments revealed that P. nidificator is a generalist predator that lives in rough bark of trees, in groups of 2 to 175 individuals (42.62 AE 28.27; N=35 colonies; solitary individuals were never found), including reproductive adults and nymphs. Individuals in groups cooperatively capture prey four times larger than solitary individuals. Adult hunters share food with siblings. Reproduction in natural conditions occurs during the hot/wet season, when food availability is high. Prey diversity and abundance seem to be the main factor limiting reproduction in this species. Phoresy (attachment to a transporter animal) is the basic mode of dispersion in P. nidificator. Grouped individuals use large animals as vectors for dispersal, and once established they use the vector as the first food item of the new colony. However, they can also disperse by colony fission, newly documented herein for this taxon. The elaborate, cooperative behavior in P. nidificator is unique among pseudoscorpions and represents an excellent model for studies on the evolution of sociality in invertebrates.

Nestmate Recognition in the Amazonian Myrmecophyte Ant Pseudomyrmex concolor Smith (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

“…The same pattern is repeated in other social arthropods (Tizo-Pedroso & Del-Claro, 2007;Del-Claro & Tizo-Pedroso, 2009). Nestmate recognition behavior is a central feature for maintaining the colonial cohesion in eusocial insects, since it allows not only altruistic acts towards relatives but also territorial-environmental resources insects, have an important role in the communication system of social insects (Wilson, 1971;Lockey, 1988;Nunes et al, 2009).…”

Environmental enrichment reduces aggression of pearl cichlid, Geophagus brasiliensis, during resident-intruder interactions

“…Resident animals fight more strongly for territories that provide higher benefits of shelter, food and nest sites, to name a few, than for territories with less benefits (Alcock, 2005;Tizo-Pedroso & Del-Claro, 2007;Contreras-Garduno et al, 2008). Nijman & Heuts (2000) showed that resident fish (including the cichlid, H. burtoni) win more fights, and become the dominant fish, more frequently when reared in an enriched environment, absent of greater aggressiveness.…”

Ecological and evolutionary pathways of social behavior in Pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones)

“…1). Pseudoscorpions can also present cannibalism, a characteristic of solitary species that also can occur among individuals of different colonies in the social species (Weygoldt 1969;Tizo-Pedroso and Del-Claro 2007).…”