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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Behavioral Choices Of Apple Snails, Pomacea Maculata, Under Varied Chemical Landscapes, Andrea Adams
Behavioral Choices Of Apple Snails, Pomacea Maculata, Under Varied Chemical Landscapes, Andrea Adams
Theses
Habitat choice is a critical behavior for organisms to successfully survive and reproduce. These choices are dictated by available environmental information about potential predation risks or food patches that form the organism’s sensory landscape. This study specifically focused on the behavioral choices of two invasive apple snail (Pomacea maculata) populations exposed to varying predation threats. We collected snails from Florida and Alabama which were used in laboratory experiments with varied sensory landscapes. Trials consisted of controls with no cues (FL: n = 7, AL: n= 7), an attractive treatment with introduced food cues (FL: n = 4, AL: …
Behavior And Chemical Signals As Markers Of Colony Identification In Argentine Ants (Linepithema Humile), Stephanie A. Rohrbach
Behavior And Chemical Signals As Markers Of Colony Identification In Argentine Ants (Linepithema Humile), Stephanie A. Rohrbach
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Argentine ants, Linepithema humile, are a highly successful invasive species around the globe and are especially prominent in states such as California and the southeastern United States. L.humile have a unique form of unicoloniality, called “supercolonies”. L. humile can detect colonymates through scent markers in their outer cuticle. With these chemical markers, ants will exhibit high aggression if they smell different from one another. In our study, we performed aggression assays among ten different nest sites and analyzed their CHCs through gas chromatography mass spectrometry, or GC-MS, analysis. For our behavior results, while within-nest interactions displayed low aggression as …
Connecting The Social And Spatial Behaviors Of A Territorial Species (Anolis Carolinensis), Jordan M. Bush
Connecting The Social And Spatial Behaviors Of A Territorial Species (Anolis Carolinensis), Jordan M. Bush
Doctoral Dissertations
Why animals live where they do is a key question in ecology and evolution. An individual’s home range determines the resources they have access to, conspecifics they encounter, and predators and pitfalls they must avoid. Home range behaviors also have an inherently social component; where animals live affects the rivals they compete with and the mates they have access to. This is especially true in territorial species, as defensive displays make up a large portion of their social behaviors. In this dissertation, I sought to understand how territorial behaviors affect the social lives of the green anole lizard (Anolis …
Ecology, Evolution, And Sexual Selection In The Invasive, Globally Distributed Small Indian Mongoose (Urva Auropunctata), M. Aaron Owen
Ecology, Evolution, And Sexual Selection In The Invasive, Globally Distributed Small Indian Mongoose (Urva Auropunctata), M. Aaron Owen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Introduced species provide rare opportunities to test evolutionary hypotheses in situ by creating so-called natural experiments. Natural experiments are situations in nature that resemble laboratory studies by allowing for comparisons of a “control” group (i.e., a species’ native range) with “experimental” groups (i.e., a species’ introduced range). In particular, introduced animals allow us to investigate evolutionary dynamics in complex, long-lived organisms in ways that would otherwise be impossible in a laboratory setting. One such introduced animal is the small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata, formerly Herpestes auropunctatus). Native to South Asia, the small Indian mongoose’s introduction to more …
Behavioral Differences Between Native And Exotic Invertebrate Prey Affect Susceptibility To Predation By A Native Amphibian Predator, Zachary Cava
Biology Theses
Invasive species threaten global biodiversity via mechanisms that include altering the dynamics and structure of native food webs. Whereas much research has focused on how exotic species respond to native predators, less is known about how native predators are affected by invasive prey. Here I investigate the response of a rare and threatened native predator—the Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) to a high-profile invasive crayfish species, Orconectes rusticus. Hellbenders have declined throughout much of their range, and although the potential for exotic predators (i.e. sport fish) to negatively impact C. alleganiensis has been addressed, effects of exotic prey …