Copy if dissatisfied, innovate if not: contrasting egg-laying decision making in an insect

Abstract

The use of conspecific cues as social information in decision making is widespread among animals; but, because this social information is indirect, it is error-prone. During resource acquisition, conspecific cues also indicate the presence of competitors; therefore, decision makers are expected to utilize direct information from resources and modify their responses to social information accordingly. Here, we show that, in a non-social insect, unattractive egg-laying resources alter the behavioural response to conspecific cues from avoidance to preference, leading to resource sharing. Females of the adzuki bean beetle Callosobruchus chinensis avoid laying eggs onto beans that already have conspecific eggs. However, when we provided females with bean-sized clean glass beads with and without conspecific eggs, the females preferred to add their eggs onto the beads with eggs. The glass beads, once coated with water extracts of adzuki beans, enabled the females to behave as if they were provided with the beans: the females preferred bean-odoured glass beads to clean glass beads and they avoided the substrates with eggs. When females are provided with unattractive egg-laying substrates only, joining behaviour (i.e. copying) might be advantageous, as it takes advantage of information about positive attributes of the substrate that the focal animal might have missed. Our results suggest that given only unsatisfactory options, the benefits of copying outweigh the costs of resource competition. Our study highlights the importance of integrating multiple information sources in animal decision making.

Trail Pheromone Does Not Modulate Subjective Reward Evaluation in Lasius niger Ants

“…Recent research has found many parallels between value perception in humans and insects ( Shafir et al, 2002 ; Sasaki and Pratt, 2011 ; Tan et al, 2015 ; Czaczkes et al, 2018 ; Oberhauser and Czaczkes, 2018 ; Wendt et al, 2019 ), even resulting in irrational behavior, suggesting that a further parallel was likely. Reliance on social information to make valuation decisions is common in animals ( Kendal et al, 2004 ; Danchin et al, 2018 ; Otake and Dobata, 2018 ), especially when no other useful information sources are available. Studies on honeybees report that alarm and Nasanov (attractive) pheromones can modulate the response to positive and aversive stimuli ( Baracchi et al, 2017 , 2020 ; Rossi et al, 2018 ).…”

The Evolutionary Relevance of Social Learning and Transmission in Non-Social Arthropods with a Focus on Oviposition-Related Behaviors

“…The first step to show evidence of social learning is that a behavior is modified in response to the perception of a social cue (step 1 in Figure 1). As a large number of studies document the existence of step 1 in various non-social arthropods, we did not include these studies in Table 1 (e.g., [35,[83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93]). Historically, most studies on ovipositionrelated behaviors have focused on parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera) as model systems, where oviposition takes place in or on the body of another arthropod [94].…”

“…Visual cues, such as the presence of con-specific eggs and/or larvae on oviposition substrates, interactions with more experienced female demonstrators, as well olfactory cues produced by con-specifics have been shown to positively influence female oviposition decisions after the original cue has been removed. This suggests that the benefits of conspecific attraction in oviposition site selection may outweigh the costs of competition in the wild [85,86]. In the context of research on social learning in Drosophila, the large knowledgebase on cues used for oviposition site selection, as well as the documented evidence for social learning (Table 1), make it an excellent model for testing whether social learning of oviposition sites can be inherited socially.…”

Seed beetles as a modern model system of interspecific competition

“…KYOGOKU cue for host choice, and thus, lay eggs even on glass beads or "artificial beans (formed from ground beans)" (e.g., Janzen et al, 1976;Otake & Dobata, 2018). Hatchlings burrow into the beans, and as the resultant bean dust fills the egg, hatched eggs change from transparent to opaque.…”