Hunger state and not personality determines task participation in a spider society

Parthasarathy, Bharat; Müller, Michelle; Bilde, Trine; Schneider, Jutta M.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.06.002

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…One possibility is that these females lacked sufficient physiological resources either to breed independently or to substantially help. Variation in both breeding and helping may arise from significant variation in quality (genetic or developmental) (Grinsted & Bilde, 2013), and/or from variation in condition (Parthasarathy et al, 2022) that may come about via within-group competition (e.g. Young et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the role of non-helpers in group-living thrips

Gilbert

2023

Preprint

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1. Behavioural variation among individuals is a hallmark of cooperative societies, which commonly contain breeders and non-breeders, helpers and non-helpers. In some cases labour is divided, with non-breeders "helping". Conversely, in some societies subordinate non-breeders often do not help. These individuals may be (i) an insurance workforce to ensure continuity of help for breeders when other helpers are lost, (ii) conserving energy while waiting to breed themselves, or (iii) simply of too poor physiological quality either to help or breed. 2. In the Australian Outback, Acacia thrips Dunatothrips aneurae (Thysanoptera) glue Acacia phyllodes into "domiciles" using silk-like secretions, either alone or cooperatively. Domicile maintenance is important for humidity, so repair can be interpreted as helping. I found that not all females helped to repair experimental damage; some repaired partially or not at all ("non-helpers"). At the same time, some co-foundresses are non- or only partially reproductive, and their role is currently unknown. 3. I first tested the possibility that helping and breeding are divided, with non-helping females breeding, and non-breeders helping. In a lab experiment, I rejected this idea. Experimentally damaged domiciles were typically repaired by reproductive females, and not by non- or partially reproductive individuals. 4. To test whether non-helpers are an insurance workforce, I successively removed repairing females and found that non-helping females did not increase effort as a result. Then, in a field experiment, I tested whether non-helping females were conserving energy while waiting to breed by removing all other females, allowing either a helpful female or a non-helping female to "inherit" her domicile. Isolated like this, non-helpers laid very few eggs compared to helpers or naturally occurring single foundresses, despite having similar ovarian development. 5. My findings show that labour was not divided: reproduction and helping covaried positively, probably depending on individual variation in female quality and intra-domicile competition. Non-helping females were neither an insurance workforce nor conserving energy waiting to breed themselves. They are likely simply of poor quality, freeloading by benefiting from domicile maintenance by others. I hypothesize they are tolerated because of selection for indiscriminate communal brood care in the form of domicile repair.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the role of non-helpers in group-living thrips

Gilbert

2023

Preprint

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“…Then, each spider received three rapid puffs of air to the anterior prosoma using a camera air blower. Thereafter, we recorded the spider’s huddling behavior (a standard antipredator posture; Riechert and Hedrick 1993 ; DiRienzo et al 2015 ; Parthasarathy et al 2022 ) for 420 s, following the modified protocol of Riechert and Hedrick (1993) and Shearer and Pruitt (2014) . Huddling was recorded as a binary response because the distribution of the data suggested a binomial distribution.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring behavioral traits over different contexts in four species of Australian funnel-web spiders

2022

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Australian funnel-web spiders are arguably the most venomous spiders in the world, with much research focusing on this aspect of their biology. However, other aspects related to their life history, ecology and behaviour have been overlooked. For the first time, we assessed repeatability, namely risk-taking behaviour, aggressiveness and activity in the contexts of predation, conspecific tolerance and exploration of a new territory in four species of Australian funnel-web spiders: two are closely related, Hadronyche valida and H. infensa, and two have overlapping distributions but occupy different habitats, H. cerberea and Atrax robustus. We also compared behaviours between species. At the species level, we found that H. valida showed consistency in risk-taking behaviour when exposed to a predator stimulus, aggressiveness against conspecifics, and exploration of a new territory. In contrast, in the other species, only A. robustus showed repeatability in the context of exploration of a new territory. These results suggest that some behavioural traits are likely more flexible than others, and that the repeatability of behaviours may be species-specific in funnel-webs. When we compared species, we found differences in risk-taking behaviour and defensiveness. This study provides novel insights to understanding variation in behavioural traits within and between species of funnel-web spiders, suggesting that some behavioural traits are likely context- and/or species-dependent, as a result of their evolutionary history. These findings provide key insights for understanding the ecological role of behaviour and venom deployment in venomous animals, and a greater understanding of behaviour in these medically significantly and iconic spiders that are of conservation concern.

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“…We starved the experimental colonies from the four source colonies for 8 days. With our experience in rearing these spiders, we know that 8 days is sufficient to induce hunger, but not cause death (Parthasarathy et al 2022 ). We also housed the experimental colonies from the remaining three source colonies in identical plastic containers for 8 days, but we fed these colonies during the last three consecutive days.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extended phenotypes can underlie trade-offs: a case of social spiders

Parthasarathy

Bouchard

Schneider

2022

Sci Nat

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Extended phenotypes engineered by animals can potentially improve safety and/or foraging. Whether the well-known trade-off between safety and foraging applies for extended phenotypes, and if so, how it is resolved has not been determined. Spiders build elaborate silk structures that serve as traps for their insect prey and often attach silken retreats (nests) to their capture webs. These extended phenotypes of spiders are made of silk that is considered costly since it is made of protein. Using the Indian social spider, Stegodyphus sarasinorum, we examined how simple proximal factors, like colony hunger state and group size, shape trade-offs in collectively built extended phenotypes that offer shelter and food. We found that well-fed colonies showed greater investment in retreat silk than starved colonies. However, the two groups did not differ in their investment in capture webs. Hence, our findings validate the starvation-risk taking hypothesis in an extended phenotypic paradigm by showing that hungry colonies trade-off retreat size for capture web, irrespective of group size.

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Hunger state and not personality determines task participation in a spider society

Cited by 4 publications

References 61 publications

Investigating the role of non-helpers in group-living thrips

Investigating the role of non-helpers in group-living thrips

Exploring behavioral traits over different contexts in four species of Australian funnel-web spiders

Extended phenotypes can underlie trade-offs: a case of social spiders

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