Young fire ant workers feign death and survive aggressive neighbors

Cassill, Deby L.; Vo, Kim Thong; Becker, Brandie

doi:10.1007/s00114-008-0362-3

Cited by 46 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(58 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Recently, the number of studies focussing on the adaptive significance of this behaviour has increased (Miyatake et al 2004;Honma et al 2006;Ruxton 2006;Ohno and Miyatake 2007;Cassill et al 2008;Hansen et al 2008) and its study in the contexts of evolutionary and behavioural ecology has made rapid progress.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic correlation between behavioural traits in relation to death‐feigning behaviour

2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Individuals frequently behave in a consistent manner across time or in different situations. We examined the repeatability of duration of death-feigning anti-predator behaviour when attacked, and then carried out artificial selection for duration to calculate its heritability and examine correlated responses to selection in activity levels, in the confused flour beetle, Tribolium confusum. Three replicates of two strains were established by artificial selection for more than 17 generations: S strains exhibited shorter duration and lower frequency of death feigning while L strains exhibited longer duration and higher frequency of death feigning. Duration of death feigning clearly responded to selection, and significant value of realized heritability was detected in all replicates of the two strains. Examination of locomotor activity levels over a constant period showed that S strains had higher locomotor activity levels than L strains. No significant differences between the sexes were observed. Our study thus demonstrates heritability of death feigning and the existence of a negative genetic correlation between intensity of death feigning and activity level.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic correlation between behavioural traits in relation to death‐feigning behaviour

2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In laboratory studies, the induced state of immobility may persist from several seconds to hours after removal of restraint [1]. This response to threat seems to be evolutionarily beneficial, as it has been linked to higher survival rate to predatory attack in different species [5], [6]. Although most experiments in animal involve physical restraint, high fear circumstances that preclude escape may be sufficient for the induction of TI [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural Validity of the Tonic Immobility Scale in a Population Exposed to Trauma: Evidence from Two Large Brazilian Samples

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundTonic Immobility is a temporary state of motor inhibition in situations involving extreme fear. The first scale developed for its assessment was the 10-item Tonic Immobility Scale (TIS). However, there are still few studies on its structural (dimensional) validity. The objective of this study was to reassess the factor structure of the TIS applied to representative samples exposed to general trauma of two Brazilian mega-cities.MethodsThe sample comprised 3,223 participants reporting at least one traumatic experience. In São Paulo (n = 2,148), a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) first tested the originally proposed two-dimensional structure. This was followed by sequential Exploratory Structural Equation Models to identify the best fitting model, and subsequently tested in Rio de Janeiro (n = 1,075) via CFA. Alternative reduced versions were further explored using the aggregate sample. Model-based Item Response Theory (IRT) location parameters were also investigated.ResultsAn absence of factor-based convergent and discriminant validity rejected the original proposition. However, the one-dimensional structure still held several residual correlations. Further exploration indicated the sustainability of reduced versions with seven (alternative A) and six (alternative B) items. Both presented excellent fit and no relevant residual item correlation. According to the IRT location parameters, items in alternative B covered a wider range of the latent trait. The Loevinger's H scalability coefficients underscored this pattern.ConclusionsThe original model did not hold. A one-factor solution was the most tenable in both large samples, but with significant item residual correlations, indicating that content redundancies persisted. Further reduced and simplified versions of the TIS proved promising. Although studies are yet to be carried out in other settings, it is the authors' impression that the restricted versions of the TIS are already apt for use in epidemiologic studies since the pros tend to outweigh the cons (as outlined in the Discussion section).

show abstract

“…This immobile state is variously called tonic immobility, hypnosis, thanatosis, catatonia, playing possum, playing dead or death-feigning. Catatonic animals can conceal their presence not only from predators (Miyatake et al 2004), but also from harassing mates (Dennis & Lavigne 1976) and from aggressive conspecifics (Lawrence 1992;van Veen et al 1999;Bilde et al 2006;Cassill et al 2008). However, until recently, research into the adaptive significance of tonic immobility has been bypassed in evolutionary studies (but see Miyatake et al 2004Miyatake et al , 2008Bilde et al 2006;Honma et al 2006;Ruxton 2006;Ohno & Miyatake 2007;Cassill et al 2008;Gerald 2008;Hansen et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tonically immobilized selfish prey can survive by sacrificing others

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Death-feigning, also called tonic immobility, is found in a number of animal species across vertebrate and invertebrate taxa. To date, five hypotheses have been proposed for the adaptive significance of tonic immobility. These are that tonic immobility is effective for prey because (i) avoiding dead prey is safer for predators, (ii) immobility plays a role in physical defence, (iii) immobility plays a role in concealment and/or background matching, (iv) predators lose interest in unmoving prey, and (v) the characteristic immobilization posture signals a bad taste to predators. The fourth and fifth hypotheses have been considered suitable explanations for tonic immobility of the red flour beetle against its predator, the jumping spider. In the present study, we used chemical analyses of secretions by the red flour beetles under attack by the jumping spider to reject the fifth hypothesis for this system. More importantly, we tested a selfish-prey hypothesis for the adaptive significance of death-feigning as an anti-predator strategy, in which individuals adopting tonic immobility survive by sacrificing neighbours. Findings showed that survival rates of feigners were higher when in the presence of non-feigners or prey of a different species, compared to when alone, thus confirming our selfish-prey hypothesis. In summary, our results suggest that immobility following a spider attack is selfish; death-feigning prey increase their probability of survival at the expense of more mobile neighbours.

show abstract

Young fire ant workers feign death and survive aggressive neighbors

Cited by 46 publications

References 43 publications

Genetic correlation between behavioural traits in relation to death‐feigning behaviour

Genetic correlation between behavioural traits in relation to death‐feigning behaviour

Structural Validity of the Tonic Immobility Scale in a Population Exposed to Trauma: Evidence from Two Large Brazilian Samples

Tonically immobilized selfish prey can survive by sacrificing others

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About