Behavior and Ethology Commons^™

Discrete But Variable Structure Of Animal Societies Leads To The False Perception Of A Social Continuum, Dustin R. Rubenstein, Carlos A. Botero, Eileen A. Lacey

Biology Faculty Research

Animal societies are typically divided into those in which reproduction within a group is monopolized by a single female versus those in which it is shared among multiple females. It remains controversial, however, whether these two forms of social structure represent distinct evolutionary outcomes or endpoints along a continuum of reproductive options. To address this issue and to determine whether vertebrates and insects exhibit the same patterns of variation in social structure, we examined the demographic and reproductive structures of 293 species of wasps, ants, birds and mammals. Using phylogenetically informed comparative analyses, we found strong evidence indicating that not …

Nocturnal Foraging Enhanced By Enlarged Secondary Eyes In A Net-Casting Spider, Jay A. Stafstrom, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Animals that possess extreme sensory structures are predicted to have a related extreme behavioral function. This study focuses on one such extreme sensory structure—the posterior median eyes of the net-casting spider Deinopis spinosa. Although past research has implicated the importance of vision in the nocturnal foraging habits of Deinopis, no direct link between vision in the enlarged eyes and nocturnal foraging has yet been made. To directly test the hypothesis that the enlarged posterior median eyes facilitate visually based nocturnal prey capture, we conducted repeated-measures, visual occlusion trials in both natural and laboratory settings. Our results indicate that D. …

Sex Ratio And Gamete Size Across Eastern North America In Dictyostelium Discoideum, A Social Amoeba With Three Sexes, Tracy Edwards Douglas, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller

Biology Faculty Research

Theory indicates that numbers of mating types should tend towards infinity or remain at two. The social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum, however, has three mating types. It is therefore a mystery how this species has broken the threshold of two mating types, but has not increased towards a much higher number. Frequency-dependent selection on rare types in combination with isogamy, a form of reproduction involving gametes similar in size, could explain the evolution of multiple mating types in this system. Other factors, such as drift, may be preventing the evolution of more than three. We first looked for evidence of …

High Genetic Diversity But Low Population Structure In The Frog Pseudopaludicola Falcipes (Hensel, 1867) (Amphibia, Anura) From The Pampas Of South America, José A. Langone, Arley Camargo, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Relative to South America’s ecoregions, the temperate grasslands of the Pampas have been poorly studied from a phylogeographic perspective. Based on an intermediate biogeographic setting between subtropical forest (Atlantic Forest) and arid ecosystems (Chaco and Patagonia), Pampean species are expected to show unstable demographic histories due to the Quaternary climatic oscillations. Herein, we investigate the phylogenetic relatedness and phylogeographic history of Pseudopaludicola falcipes, a small and common frog that is widely distributed across the Pampean grasslands. First, we use molecular data to assess if P. falcipes represents a single or multiple, separately evolving cryptic lineages. Because P. falcipes is …

When Human-Leopard Conflict Turns Deadly: A Cross-Country Situational Analysis, Julie S. Viollaz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Habitat destruction and pollution are two of the main causes for the decline of the planet’s biodiversity. Yet environmentalists are now recognizing that illegal wildlife killings, both poaching and retaliatory killings due to human-wildlife conflict, are perhaps the next major threat. Biologists have researched illegal killings and their effect on species conservation, but few researchers have applied criminological principles of crime reduction to them. This research will explore the situational factors that drive retaliatory leopard killings in parts of South Africa, Kenya, and India. These factors, human and environmental, include local expectations from wildlife, sensitivity to environmental issues, communication between …

Measuring The Robustness Of Network Community Structure Using Assortativity, Daizaburo Shizuka, Damien R. Farine

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The existence of discrete social clusters, or ‘communities’, is a common feature of social networks in human and nonhuman animals. The level of such community structure in networks is typically measured using an index of modularity, Q. While modularity quantifies the degree to which individuals associate within versus between social communities and provides a useful measure of structure in the social network, it assumes that the network has been well sampled. However, animal social network data is typically subject to sampling errors. In particular, the associations among individuals are often not sampled equally, and animal social network studies are often …

Absence Of Mate Choice And Postcopulatory Benefits In A Species With Extreme Sexual Size Dimorphism, Marie Claire Chelini, Eileen Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Most hypotheses related to the evolution of female-biased extreme sexual size dimorphism (SSD) attribute the differences in the size of each sex to selection for reproduction, either through selection for increased female fecundity or selection for male increased mobility and faster development. Very few studies, however, have tested for direct fitness benefits associated with the latter – small male size. Mecaphesa celer is a crab spider with extreme SSD, whose males are less than half the size of females and often weigh 10 times less. Here, we test the hypotheses that larger size in females and smaller size in males …

Absence Of Mate Choice And Postcopulatory Benefits In A Species With Extreme Sexual Size Dimorphism, Marie-Claire Chelini, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Most hypotheses related to the evolution of female-biased extreme sexual size dimorphism (SSD) attribute the differences in the size of each sex to selection for reproduction, either through selection for increased female fecundity or selection for male increased mobility and faster development. Very few studies, however, have tested for direct fitness benefits associated with the latter – small male size. Mecaphesa celer is a crab spider with extreme SSD, whose males are less than half the size of females and often weigh 10 times less. Here, we test the hypotheses that larger size in females and smaller size in males …

An Investigation Of Juvenile Alewife (Alosa Pseudoharengus) Habitat Use And Growth Using Natural Markers, Gregory Norman Labonte Ms

All Student Scholarship

This research attempts to connect patterns in growth and migration of an anadromous species. The goal of this research was to understand habitat movements and growth of juvenile alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) in the Penobscot Estuary and Bay through the use of otolith microchemistry, otolith growth increments, and a laboratory stable isotope turnover study. Understanding the connection between growth and movement of juvenile alewives may lead to more accurate and sophisticated conservation and restoration methods for anadromous species.

Mate Choice And Consequences For Consanguineous Mating In Drosophila Melanogaster, Emily S. Martin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The ability to discriminate between prospective mates is potentially important not only for the avoidance of unsuccessful or incompatible matings, but also for the selection of higher “quality” mates. Inbreeding, reproduction between closely related individuals, has long enjoyed the attention of biologists, and has classically been associated with fitness consequences that are primarily negative, termed “inbreeding depression”. Indeed, the costs of mating with a relative are well documented across a wide variety of species. If individuals are capable of kin recognition, it is expected that species should evolve to avoid consanguineous matings. However, a number of recent models suggest circumstances …

Sex-Obsessed Or Just Sociable? Non-Copulatory Displays In The Hamerkop, Natasha Hagemeyer

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] Non‐copulatory sexual behavior is surprisingly common among animals ranging from insects to vertebrates. Although sometimes considered unusual or aberrant within a species, in some taxa non‐copulatory sexual behavior is widespread, and may even represent the majority of sexual behavior. Such behavior can also happen in many other contexts, including accidental contact, courtship, social bonding, and social structuring (Bagemihl 1999).

No Cortex, No Cry, Vladimir Dinets

Animal Sentience

In his target article, Key (2016) argues that since fish don’t have a frontal cortex (part of the brain known to be important for feeling of pain in humans and rodents), they cannot feel pain or other noxious stimuli. I comment on the logic used in this extrapolation and other arguments presented in the paper.

The Nutritional Value Of Fecal Sacs: Testing The Parental Nutrition Hypothesis, Amanda W. Burns

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Nest sanitation is an important aspect of parental investment in birds with altricial nestlings. Passerine nestlings produce fecal matter that is encased in a mucous membrane for easy disposal. These fecal sacs are either removed from the nest and transported a distance away or they are ingested by the adult. A decline in fecal sac ingestion rates as nestlings age has been observed in several species. The parental nutrition hypothesis posits that this pattern can be attributed to increasing digestive efficiency as nestlings age. The parental nutrition hypothesis makes three predictions: fecal sac consumption rates should decrease as nestlings age, …

Displaying To Females May Lower Male Foraging Time And Vigilance In A Lekking Bird, Sarah A. Cowles, Robert M. Gibson

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Males of many species use courtship behavior to attract mates. However, by doing so males may face the associated costs of increased energetic expenditure, reduced foraging time, and elevated predation risk. We investigated the costs of display in lekking male Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus). We used lek-wide scan sampling to study how males allocated time among courtship display (‘‘dancing’’), agonism, foraging, and inactivity in relation to female numbers both within and across days. We also addressed the limited attention hypothesis and estimated visual attentiveness by videotaping 13 males and scoring head turns during these different activities. We found that the …

Predicting Toucan Locations In Panama Using Arcgis, Daniel J. Herrera

Geography: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Toucans are omnivorous birds native to southern Latin America and South America. They are non-migratory, and their range is disputed among experts. In an attempt to develop a better understanding of the range and behavior of toucans, correlations between toucan presence and geographic features of the area were analyzed to create a location probability map.

Mapping The Movement Of Overwintering Western Monarch Butterflies (Danaus Plexippus) At The Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove Using Arcgis Software, Brett Johnson, Jesse Wycko, Daniel Goldthwaite, Tyler Brown

Symposium

Dr. Villablanca of the Cal Poly Biology Department commissioned this project with the goal of tracking Monarch Butterfly spatial redistribution in anticipation of or response to severe weather events. We believe that Monarchs cluster non-preferentially on introduced Eucalyptus trees until midwinter when they begin to cluster preferentially on native conifers. Based on the efforts of a previous group of students, it has been deter- mined that, over a two-week time period in mid-winter, Monarchs spend the majority of their time on native conifers. We set out to clearly demonstrate Monarch Butterfly spatial redistribution in either anticipation of or response to …

Chasin’ Tail In Southern Alabama: Delineating Programmed And Stimulus-Driven Grooming In Odocoileus Virginianus, Kyle Heine

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examined variation in ectoparasite density and grooming behavior of naturally occurring white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in southwest Alabama. Stimulus-driven grooming as well as the intraspecific body size and vigilance principles of programmed grooming were tested. During the rut, males had a higher average tick (Ixodidae) density than females and exhibited complete separation of tick parasitism between non-rutting and rutting periods, supporting the vigilance principle. Stimulus-driven grooming was supported, as both fawns and yearlings had significantly higher fly (Hippoboscidae) and combined fly/tick densities than adults, and fawns oral groomed at a significantly higher rate than adults, even …

A Dual Function Of White Coloration In A Nocturnal Spider Dolomedes Raptor (Araneae: Pisauridae), Tai-Shen Lin, Shichang Zhang, Chen-Pan Liao, Eileen A. Hebets, I-Min Tso

Eileen Hebets Publications

Nocturnal animals frequently possess seemingly conspicuous color patterns that can function in a variety of ways (e.g. prey attraction, camouflage, predator avoidance, etc.). The use of color patterns in intraspecific signaling, especially reproductive activities, in nocturnal animals has received relatively little attention. This study tested for a dual function of color in the nocturnal fishing spider, Dolomedes raptor (Araneae: Pisauridae), whose males develop dimorphic white stripes at sexual maturation. We tested for a role in foraging as well as mate assessment. First, quantifications of the natural variation of male stripes indicated a correlation between stripe area and male body size …

Home Range, Habitat Use, And Movements Of Native Northern Map Turtles (Graptemys Geographica), And Sympatric Invasive Red-Eared Slider Turtles (Trachemys Scripta Elegans), In The Upper Niagara River, Brian E. Haas

Biology Theses

Turtle populations throughout the world are in decline due to the effects associated with anthropogenic disturbances. Northern map turtles in the Upper Niagara River are facing the same effects associated with shoreline development, pollution, and human induced mortality. A biotelemetric study was conducted to understand the population structure, habitat use, and behavior of northern map turtles in the Upper Niagara River. Turtles were trapped, outfitted with radio and sonic transmitters, and tracked from August 2013 until April 2015. Invasive red-eared sliders, which also inhabit the Niagara River were captured and tracked to allow for comparison. This invasive species is a …

A Search For Parent-Of-Origin Effects On Honey Bee Gene Expression, Sarah D. Kocher, Jennifer M. Tsuruda, Joshua D. Gibson, Christine M. Emore, Miguel E. Arechavaleta-Velasco, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann, Christina M. Grozinger, Michael R. Gribskov, Phillip San Miguel, Rick Westerman, Greg J. Hunt

Biology Faculty Research

Parent-specific gene expression (PSGE) is little known outside of mammals and plants. PSGE occurs when the expression level of a gene depends on whether an allele was inherited from the mother or the father. Kin selection theory predicts that there should be extensive PSGE in social insects because social insect parents can gain inclusive fitness benefits by silencing parental alleles in female offspring. We searched for evidence of PSGE in honey bees using transcriptomes from reciprocal crosses between European and Africanized strains. We found 46 transcripts with significant parent-of-origin effects on gene expression, many of which overexpressed the maternal allele. …

Genomic Signatures Of Cooperation And Conflict In The Social Amoeba, Elizabeth A. Ostrowski, Yufeng Shen, Xiangjun Tian, Richard Sucgang, Huaiyang Jiang, Jiaxin Qu, Mariko Katoh-Kurasawa, Debra A. Brock, Christopher Dinh, Fremiet Lara-Garduno, Sandra L. Lee, Christie L. Kovar, Huyen H. Dinh, Viktoriya Korchina, Laronda Jackson, Shobha Patil, Yi Han, Lesley Chaboub, Gad Shaulsky, Donna M. Muzny, Kim C. Worley, Richard A. Gibbs, Stephen Richards, Adam Kuspa, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller

Biology Faculty Research

• Molecular evolution analyses reveal the history of social conflict
• Genes that mediate social conflict show signatures of frequency-dependent selection
• Balanced polymorphisms suggest that cheating may be stable and endemic

Cooperative systems are susceptible to invasion by selfish individuals that profit from receiving the social benefits but fail to contribute. These so-called "cheaters" can have a fitness advantage in the laboratory, but it is unclear whether cheating provides an important selective advantage in nature. We used a population genomic approach to examine the history of genes involved in cheating behaviors in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, testing whether these genes experience …

Predation In A Natural Community Of Marine Mollusks: Using Morphology To Determine Predator-Prey Ecology, Danielle N. Araiza, Erica Valdez

DePaul Discoveries

Predatory gastropod mollusks in the family Naticidae feed on bivalve mollusks and leave distinctive markings in the form of countersunk circular boreholes on the shells. These boreholes possess both an inner borehole diameter (IBD) and an outer borehole diameter (OBD) which are proportional to the size of the predator. It has been proposed that the ratio of IBD to OBD can be used to identify predator species. Variation in the ratio of the IBD to OBD was examined in two prey species (Dwarf surf clam, Incongruous ark clam) collected from Otter Island beach in South Carolina to determine if clams …

Interspecific Egg Rejection As Ecological Collateral Damage From Selection Driven By Conspecific Brood Parasitism, Bruce E. Lyon, Daizaburo Shizuka, John M. Eadie

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Distinguishing between interspecific and intraspecific coevolution as the selective driver of traits can be difficult in some taxa. A previous study of an avian obligate brood parasite, the black-headed duck, Heteronetta atricapilla, suggested that egg rejection by its two main hosts (two species of coot) is an incidental by-product of selection from conspecific brood parasitism within the hosts, not selection imposed by the interspecific parasite. However, although both species of coot can recognize and reject eggs of conspecific brood parasites, which closely resemble their own, they paradoxically also accept a moderate fraction of duck eggs (40–60%), which differ strikingly …

Some Agreement On Kin Selection And Eusociality?, David C. Queller, Stephen Rong, Xiaoyun Liao

Biology Faculty Research

The authors of "Relatedness, Conflict, and the Evolution of Eusociality" respond to objections raised by Martin Nowak and Benjamin Allen.

Is There Specificity In A Defensive Mutualism Against Soil Versus Lab Nematodes, Dictyostelium Discoideum Farmers And Their Bacteria?, Boahemaa Adu-Oppong,, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann

Biology Faculty Research

Background: The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil-dwelling microbe, which lives most of its life cycle in the vegetative stage as a predator of bacteria and as prey for nematodes. When bacteria are sparse, amoebae aggregate into a multicellular fruiting body. Some clones of D. discoideum have agriculture (Brock et al., 2011). They carry bacteria through the social stage, eat them prudently, and use some bacteria as defence against non-farming D. discoideum competitors. Caenorhabditis elegans preys on D. discoideum in the laboratory but does not encounter it in nature because C. elegans lives on rotten fruit. The nematode …

Concurrent Coevolution Of Intra-Organismal Cheaters And Resisters, S R. Levin, D A. Brock, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann

Biology Faculty Research

The evolution of multicellularity is a major transition that is not yet fully understood. Specifically, we do not know whether there are any mechanisms by which multicellularity can be maintained without a single-cell bottleneck or other relatedness-enhancing mechanisms. Under low relatedness, cheaters can evolve that benefit from the altruistic behaviour of others without themselves sacrificing. If these are obligate cheaters, incapable of cooperating, their spread can lead to the demise of multicellularity. One possibility, however, is that cooperators can evolve resistance to cheaters. We tested this idea in a facultatively multicellular social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. This amoeba usually exists as …

Relatedness, Conflict, And The Evolution Of Eusociality, Xiaoyun Liao, Stephen Rong, David C. Queller

Biology Faculty Research

The evolution of sterile worker castes in eusocial insects was a major problem in evolutionary theory until Hamilton developed a method called inclusive fitness. He used it to show that sterile castes could evolve via kin selection, in which a gene for altruistic sterility is favored when the altruism sufficiently benefits relatives carrying the gene. Inclusive fitness theory is well supported empirically and has been applied to many other areas, but a recent paper argued that the general method of inclusive fitness was wrong and advocated an alternative population genetic method. The claim of these authors was bolstered by a …

Temporal Patterns Of Nutrition Dependence In Secondary Sexual Traits And Their Varying Impacts On Male Mating Success, Malcolm F. Rosenthal, Eileen A. Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Variation in the quantity of nutrients ingested over an individual’s lifetime is likely to differentially affect distinct male secondary sexual traits and courtship signals, potentially providing females with information about a male’s past and present foraging history. We hypothesize that female choice is thus influenced by a male’s lifetime foraging history. To test this, we manipulated the quantity of nutrients (i.e. prey items) available to male wolf spiders, Schizocosa stridulans, using a fully crossed 2 × 2 design with low versus high prey quantity across juvenile and adult life stages, and assessed the impact of these diet treatments on male …

Abiotic Habitat Preferences Of Age-0 Paddlefish In Lake Sakakawea, North Dakota During Late Summer, Derek Dufault

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Since the early 1990’s, surface visual counts along transects have been conducted annually, allowing for estimates of relative abundance and year-class strength of age-0 paddlefish Polyodon spathula on the upper portions of Lake Sakakawea, North Dakota. This study focuses on the annual visual surface count data collected over an eleven year period from 2004-2014. More specifically it focuses on abiotic habitat factors (Secchi depth, water depth, and water temperature) and how they relate to age-0 paddlefish locations in late summer. Understanding habitat use during early life stages is imperative, yet to date, there is very limited knowledge available regarding the …

Females Sample More Males At High Nesting Densities, But Ultimately Obtain Less Attractive Mates, Robin M. Tinghitella, Chelsea Stehle, Janette W. Boughman

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Sexual selection is largely driven by the availability of mates. Theory predicts that male competition and female choice should be density-dependent, with males competing more intensely at relatively high density, and females becoming increasingly discriminating when there are more males from whom to choose. Evidence for flexible mating decisions is growing, but we do not understand how environmental variation is incorporated into mate sampling strategies. We mimicked threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) breeding conditions in pools with high and low densities of nesting males and allowed females to search for mates to determine whether 1) mate search strategies change with …