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Parthasarathy B, Dumke M, Herberstein ME, Schneider JM. Male cooperation improves their own and kin-group productivity in a group-foraging spider. Sci Rep 2023; 13:366. [PMID: 36611080 PMCID: PMC9825364 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-27282-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Cooperation should only evolve if the direct and/or indirect benefits exceed the costs. Hence, cooperators are expected to generate selective benefits for themselves and the kin-group while defectors will impose costs. The subsocial spider, Australomisidia ergandros, shows consistent cooperation and defection tactics while foraging. Cooperative individuals are consistently likely to share prey with other group members whereas defector spiders rarely share the prey they acquired. Here, we assess costs and benefits of cooperation, and the causal determinants behind cooperative and defective phenotypes. We constructed experimental kin-colonies of A. ergandros composed of pure cooperative or defector foragers and show that pure cooperative groups had higher hunting success as they acquired prey more quickly with greater joint participation than pure defector groups. Importantly, defectors suffered higher mortality than cooperators and lost considerable weight. A social network approach using subadult spiders revealed that foraging tactic is sex dependent with males cooperating more frequently than females. Our results provide a rare empirical demonstration of sex-specific male cooperation that confer individual and kin-group benefits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bharat Parthasarathy
- Institute for Cell and Systems Biology of Animals, Universität Hamburg, 20146, Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Marlis Dumke
- Institute for Cell and Systems Biology of Animals, Universität Hamburg, 20146, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Marie E Herberstein
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Jutta M Schneider
- Institute for Cell and Systems Biology of Animals, Universität Hamburg, 20146, Hamburg, Germany
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Walter A, Bilde T. Avoiding the tragedy of the commons: Improved group-feeding performance in kin groups maintains foraging cooperation in subsocial Stegodyphus africanus spiders (Araneae, Eresidae). J Evol Biol 2021; 35:391-399. [PMID: 34953159 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 12/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Cooperation involving shared-resource systems is prone to 'the tragedy of the commons', where individuals act in their own self-interest to exploit the resource in a manner that is detrimental to the common good of all group members. Directing cooperation towards kin provides a solution to this problem, and predicts the differential performance depending on relatedness of group members. In subsocial spiders, juveniles live in transient groups that cooperate in hunting and communal feeding. Prey capture is costly in terms of risk of injury and investment of venom and digestive enzymes, and therefore presents a situation where individuals may attempt to avoid costly interactions and exploit the resource acquired by other group members. We tested the prediction that individuals differentiate participation and/or investment in cooperative prey capture and extra-oral digestion (injection of digestive enzymes into prey prior to the initiation of extraction of nutrients) in response to relatedness of group members with whom they interact, in the subsocial spider Stegodyphus africanus. The performance of groups and interactions over prey attack in groups of either related or mixed kin spiderlings were determined over a period of four weeks. We show that kin groups attack the prey significantly faster, recruit individuals to form feeding groups faster, extract prey body mass more efficiently, and experience less antagonistic interactions than groups of mixed relatedness, which ultimately translates into an elevated growth rate. These results indicate that related individuals are more willing to take risks and invest in communal digestion when foraging with kin, as predicted by inclusive fitness theory as a solution to the tragedy of the commons.
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Moura RR, Oliveira ID, Vasconcellos‐Neto J, Gonzaga MO. “Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise”: Indiscriminate male care in a neotropical spider. Ethology 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rafael Rios Moura
- Departamento de Ciências Biológicas Núcleo de Extensão e Pesquisa em Ecologia e Evolução (NEPEE) Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais Ituiutaba Brazil
- Instituto de Biologia Universidade Federal de Uberlândia Uberlândia Brazil
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Duthie AB, Lee AM, Reid JM. Inbreeding parents should invest more resources in fewer offspring. Proc Biol Sci 2017; 283:rspb.2016.1845. [PMID: 27881747 PMCID: PMC5136589 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.1845] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2016] [Accepted: 10/24/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Inbreeding increases parent-offspring relatedness and commonly reduces offspring viability, shaping selection on reproductive interactions involving relatives and associated parental investment (PI). Nevertheless, theories predicting selection for inbreeding versus inbreeding avoidance and selection for optimal PI have only been considered separately, precluding prediction of optimal PI and associated reproductive strategy given inbreeding. We unify inbreeding and PI theory, demonstrating that optimal PI increases when a female's inbreeding decreases the viability of her offspring. Inbreeding females should therefore produce fewer offspring due to the fundamental trade-off between offspring number and PI. Accordingly, selection for inbreeding versus inbreeding avoidance changes when females can adjust PI with the degree that they inbreed. By contrast, optimal PI does not depend on whether a focal female is herself inbred. However, inbreeding causes optimal PI to increase given strict monogamy and associated biparental investment compared with female-only investment. Our model implies that understanding evolutionary dynamics of inbreeding strategy, inbreeding depression, and PI requires joint consideration of the expression of each in relation to the other. Overall, we demonstrate that existing PI and inbreeding theories represent special cases of a more general theory, implying that intrinsic links between inbreeding and PI affect evolution of behaviour and intrafamilial conflict.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Bradley Duthie
- Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UK
| | - Aline M Lee
- Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UK
| | - Jane M Reid
- Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UK
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Botterill-James T, Halliwell B, McKeown S, Sillince J, Uller T, Wapstra E, While GM. Family aggression in a social lizard. Sci Rep 2017; 7:3502. [PMID: 28615643 PMCID: PMC5471180 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-03531-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2017] [Accepted: 05/01/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The evolution of family living is underpinned by conflict and cooperation between family members. While family groups can be maintained by reducing conflict between parents and offspring, interactions between siblings may play an equally important role. Here, we compared the level of aggressive interactions between siblings to that between parents and their offspring in the family living skink Liopholis whitii. Aggressive interactions occurred much more frequently between siblings and between fathers and offspring than between mothers and their offspring. These results suggest that ecological and social conditions that reduce conflict between siblings and between males and offspring will be fundamental in the evolutionary maintenance and diversification of family living in these lizards.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Botterill-James
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
| | - Ben Halliwell
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
| | - Simon McKeown
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
| | - Jacinta Sillince
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
| | - Tobias Uller
- Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, 223 62, Lund, Sweden
- Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd, OX1 3PS, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Erik Wapstra
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
| | - Geoffrey M While
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia.
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Botterill-James T, Ford L, While GM, Smiseth PT. Resource availability, but not polyandry, influences sibling conflict in a burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Behav Ecol 2017. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arx073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Dumke M, Herberstein ME, Schneider JM. Producers and scroungers: feeding-type composition changes with group size in a socially foraging spider. Proc Biol Sci 2016; 283:rspb.2016.0114. [PMID: 27075253 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2016] [Accepted: 03/17/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In groups of socially foraging animals, feeding behaviour may change with group size in response to varying cost-benefit trade-offs. Numerous studies have described group-size effects on group-average feeding behaviour, particularly emphasizing an increase in scrounging incidence for larger groups, where individuals (scroungers) feed from the food sources others (producers) discovered. However, individual variation in feeding behaviour remains unconsidered in the vast majority of these studies even though theoretical models predict individuals to specialize in feeding tactic and anticipate higher scrounger-type frequencies in larger groups. We combined group-level and individual-level analyses of group-size effects on social foraging in the subsocial spider Australomisidia ergandros Lending novel experimental support to model predictions, we found that individuals specialize in feeding tactic and that higher scrounging and lower producing incidence in larger groups were mediated through shifts in the ratio of feeding types. Further, feeding-type specialization was not explained by innate individual differences in hunting ability as all feeding types were equally efficient in prey capture when foraging alone. Context adaptivity of feeding behaviour might allow this subsocial species to succeed under varying socioecological conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlis Dumke
- Biocenter Grindel, Zoological Institute, University of Hamburg, Martin Luther King Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia
| | - Marie E Herberstein
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia
| | - Jutta M Schneider
- Biocenter Grindel, Zoological Institute, University of Hamburg, Martin Luther King Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
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Dumke M. Extended maternal care and offspring interactions in the subsocial Australian crab spider, Xysticus bimaculatus. AUST J ZOOL 2016. [DOI: 10.1071/zo16070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Extended maternal care is considered a prerequisite for the evolution of permanent family grouping and eusociality in invertebrates. In spiders, the essential evolutionary transitions to permanent sociality along this ‘subsocial route’ include the extension of care beyond hatching, the persistence of offspring groups to maturation and the elimination of premating dispersal. Subsocial Australian crab spiders (Thomisidae) present a suitable system to identify the selective agents prolonging group cohesion. Particularly, the recent discovery of independently evolved subsociality in the thomisid Xysticus bimaculatus provides new potential for comparative studies to expand the limited understanding of group cohesion beyond the offspring’s potential independence and despite socially exploitative behaviour. Providing fundamental knowledge, the present study investigated maternal care and offspring interactions in X. bimaculatus for the first time. Nest dissections revealed that mothers produce exceptionally small clutches, potentially reflecting a limit in the number of juveniles they can successfully care for. A laboratory experiment demonstrated crucial benefits for offspring in receiving maternal care beyond nutritional independence, mediated by extensive maternal food provisioning. However, prey-sharing also occurred between juveniles irrespective of maternal presence, which marks this species’ predisposition for exploitative feeding behaviour. I therefore suggest X. bimaculatus as a suitable model for investigating the regulation of communal feeding in group-living spiders.
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Trumbo ST, Xhihani E. Influences of Parental Care and Food Deprivation on Regulation of Body Mass in a Burying Beetle. Ethology 2015. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Stephen T. Trumbo
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; University of Connecticut; Waterbury CT USA
| | - Ervis Xhihani
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; University of Connecticut; Waterbury CT USA
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Ruch J, Riehl T, May-Collado LJ, Agnarsson I. Multiple origins of subsociality in crab spiders (Thomisidae). Mol Phylogenet Evol 2015; 82 Pt A:330-40. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.10.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2014] [Revised: 10/17/2014] [Accepted: 10/20/2014] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Ruch J, Riehl T, Michalik P. Re-description of Xysticus bimaculatus L. Koch, 1867 (Araneae, Thomisidae) and characterization of its subsocial lifestyle. Zookeys 2014:1-19. [PMID: 25147462 PMCID: PMC4137311 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.427.7450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2014] [Accepted: 07/03/2014] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Spiders have become an important model to study the evolution of sociality, but a lack of their detailed natural history and taxonomy hinders broader comparative studies. Group-living crab spiders (Thomisidae) provide an excellent contrast to other social spiders since they lack a communal capture web, which was thought to be a critical factor in the evolution of sociality. Only three non-webbuilding crab-spider species are known to be subsocial or social, all of which belong to the genus Diaea Thorell, 1869. The aim of this study is to describe the social lifestyle of Xysticus bimaculatus L. Koch, 1867 for the first time. Furthermore, we present a detailed re-description of this species and discuss its taxonomic implications. Like other subsocial crab spiders, X. bimaculatus builds nests from tree leaves. Nests contain up to 38 spiders and sometimes several adult females, indicating the species may be at a transitory stage between subsociality and permanent sociality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasmin Ruch
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia ; Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum, Biocenter Grindel, University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King- Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Torben Riehl
- Zoological Institute and Zoological Museum, Biocenter Grindel, University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King- Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Peter Michalik
- Zoological Institute and Museum, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University, J.-S.-Bach-Str. 11/12, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
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