Journal: Behavioral Ecology

Abbreviation

Behav Ecol

Publisher

Oxford University Press

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ISSN

1045-2249
1465-7279

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Publications 1 - 10 of 12
  • Spontaneous nongenetic variation of group size creates cheater-free groups of social microbes
    Item type: Journal Article
    Amherd, Michaela; Velicer, Gregory J.; Rendueles, Olaya (2018)
    Behavioral Ecology
    In social organisms, cheaters that gain a fitness advantage by defecting from the costs of cooperation reduce the average level of cooperation in a population. Such cheating load can be severe enough to cause local extinction events when cooperation is necessary for survival, but can also mediate group-level selection against cheaters across spatially structured groups that vary in cheater frequency. In cheater-laden populations, such variation could be generated by the formation of new homogeneous groups by small numbers of identical cells. Here, we use the model social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus to test whether population bottlenecks inherent to the starvation-induced formation of multicellular fruiting bodies can generate cheater-free groups within an initially cheater-laden population. We first show that genetically identical fruiting bodies vary greatly in their numbers of stress-resistant spores. We further show mathematically and experimentally that this variation can include small cheater-free groups. Such nongenetic variation in group size was found to occur in a variety of M. xanthus isolates and Myxococcus species. Our results suggest that stress-induced reductions in group size may serve as a general process that repeatedly purges genetic diversity from a minority of social groups, thus recurrently generating high-relatedness social environments unburdened by cheating load.
  • No kin discrimination in female mate choice of a parasitoid with complementary sex determination
    Item type: Journal Article
    Ruf, Daniel; Mazzi, Dominique; Dorn, Silvia (2010)
    Behavioral Ecology
  • Mate availability determines use of alternative reproductive phenotypes in hermaphrodites
    Item type: Journal Article
    Felmy, Anja; Weissert, Nora; Travis, Joseph; et al. (2020)
    Behavioral Ecology
    In many species, individuals can employ alternative reproductive phenotypes, with profound consequences for individual fitness and population dynamics. This is particularly relevant for self-compatible hermaphrodites, which have exceptionally many reproductive options. Here we investigated the occurrence of reproductive phenotypes in the simultaneously hermaphroditic freshwater snail Radix balthica under experimentally simulated conditions of low versus moderate population density. We captured all mating behavior on camera and measured individual female lifetime reproductive success. We found every possible reproductive phenotype: (1) both male and female (i.e., truly hermaphroditic) reproduction, (2) purely female and (3) purely male reproduction, (4) male reproduction combined with self-fertilization and (5) female mating activity, (6) pure self-fertilization without mating and (7–8) two types of reproductive failure. Variation in alternative reproductive phenotypes was explained by mate availability (10.8%) and individual condition, approximated by a snail’s mean daily growth rate (17.5%). Increased mate availability resulted in a lower diversity of reproductive phenotypes, in particular increasing the frequency of true hermaphrodites. However, it lowered phenotype-specific fecundities and hence reduced the population growth rate. Snails in better condition were more likely to reproduce as true hermaphrodites or pure females, whereas low-condition snails tended to suffer reproductive failure. Overall, we show substantial variation in alternative reproductive phenotypes in a hermaphrodite, which is possibly in part maintained by fluctuations in population density and thus mate availability, and by variation in individual condition. We also provide evidence of an almost 2-fold increase in clutch size that can be ascribed specifically to mating as a female.
  • Wondering about sex: W. D. Hamilton's contribution to explaining nature's masterpiece
    Item type: Journal Article
    Schmid-Hempel, Paul (2001)
    Behavioral Ecology
  • Fallow bucks attend to vocal cues of motivation and fatigue
    Item type: Journal Article
    Pitcher, Benjamin J.; Briefer, Elodie F.; Vannoni, Elisabetta; et al. (2014)
    Behavioral Ecology
  • Genetic and plastic components of divergent male intersexual behavior in Misty lake/stream stickleback
    Item type: Journal Article
    Delcourt, Matthieu; Räsänen, Katja; Hendry, Andrew P. (2008)
    Behavioral Ecology
  • Time and energy constraints and the relationships between currencies in foraging theory
    Item type: Journal Article
    Ydenberg, R. C; Welham, C. V. J.; Schmid-Hempel, R.; et al. (1994)
    Behavioral Ecology
  • Social enviroment influences aphid production of alarm pheromone
    Item type: Journal Article
    Verheggen, Francois J.; Haubruge, Eric; De Moraes, Consuelo M.; et al. (2009)
    Behavioral Ecology
  • Maternal condition determines offspring behavior toward family members in the European earwig
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kramer, Jos; Meunier, Joël (2016)
    Behavioral Ecology
    Parental care confers benefits to juveniles but is usually associated with substantial costs for parents. These costs often depend on parental condition, which is thus considered as a key determinant of the level of parental care expressed during family life. However, how parental condition affects the behaviors that juveniles express toward their siblings and parents remains poorly explored. Here, we investigated these questions in the European earwig Forficula auricularia, an insect in which mothers provide extensive forms of care to their juveniles. We measured maternal body condition at egg hatching, subsequently manipulated maternal nutritional state, and finally assessed both food transfer among siblings and the nature of mother–offspring interactions. We also considered variation in brood size, an important parameter in family interactions. We found that food transfer among siblings increased with brood size when the tending mothers were in a deteriorated nutritional state. This effect was masked when the nutritional state of mothers was enhanced. The frequency of care-related behaviors that juveniles expressed toward their mother was higher when she was in a deteriorated rather than an enhanced nutritional state, while it overall increased with brood size. Finally, increasing values of maternal body condition entailed a shift from a positive to a negative association between maternal care behaviors and brood size, but only when the mothers’ nutritional state was deteriorated. Overall, our results demonstrate that parental condition and brood size do not only affect parental behaviors but can also be important and entangled drivers of offspring behaviors during family life.
  • How biases in sperm storage relate to sperm use during oviposition in female yellow dung flies
    Item type: Journal Article
    Demont, Marco; Ward, Paul I.; Blanckenhorn, Wolf U.; et al. (2021)
    Behavioral Ecology
    Precise mechanisms underlying sperm storage and utilization are largely unknown, and data directly linking stored sperm to paternity remain scarce. We used competitive microsatellite PCR to study the effects of female morphology, copula duration and oviposition on the proportion of stored sperm provided by the second of two copulating males (S-2) in Scathophaga stercoraria (Diptera: Scathophagidae), the classic model for sperm competition studies. We genotyped all offspring from potentially mixed-paternity clutches to establish the relationship between a second male's stored sperm (S-2) and paternity success (P-2). We found consistent skew in sperm storage across the three female spermathecae, with relatively more second-male sperm stored in the singlet spermatheca than in the doublet spermathecae. S-2 generally decreased with increasing spermathecal size, consistent with either heightened first-male storage in larger spermathecae, or less efficient sperm displacement in them. Additionally, copula duration and several two-way interactions influenced S-2, highlighting the complexity of postcopulatory processes and sperm storage. Importantly, S-2 and P-2 were strongly correlated. Manipulation of the timing of oviposition strongly influenced observed sperm-storage patterns, with higher S-2 when females laid no eggs before being sacrificed than when they oviposited between copulations, an observation consistent with adaptive plasticity in insemination. Our results identified multiple factors influencing sperm storage, nevertheless suggesting that the proportion of stored sperm is strongly linked to paternity (i.e., a fair raffle). Even more detailed data in this vein are needed to evaluate the general importance of sperm competition relative to cryptic female choice in postcopulatory sexual selection.
Publications 1 - 10 of 12