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Dryad

Data from: Iterative evolution of increased behavioral variation characterizes the transition to sociality in spiders and proves advantageous

Cite this dataset

Pruitt, Jonathan N.; Oufiero, Christopher E.; Avilés, Leticia; Riechert, Susan E. (2012). Data from: Iterative evolution of increased behavioral variation characterizes the transition to sociality in spiders and proves advantageous [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.08np6

Abstract

The evolution of group living is regarded as a major evolutionary transition and is commonly met with correlated shifts in ancillary characters. We tested for associations between social tendency and a myriad of abiotic variables and behavioral traits (e.g., boldness, activity level) in a clade of spiders that exhibit highly variable social structures.We found that social species tended to exhibit reduced aggressiveness towards prey, increased fearfulness towards predators, reduced activity levels, and occurred in warm, wet habitats with low wind velocities. Within-species variation in aggressiveness and boldness were greater in social species. We then assessed the functional consequences of within-species trait variation on reconstituted colonies of four species (A. eximius, A. rupununi, A. guacamayos, A. oritoyacu). We used colonies consisting of known ratios of docile versus aggressive individuals and group foraging success as a measure of colony performance.We found that groups composed of a mixture of docile and aggressive individuals outperformed monotypic groups: (1) mixed groups were more effective at subduing medium and large sized prey, and (2) mixed groups collectively gained more mass during shared feeding events. Our results suggest that the iterative evolution of depressed aggressiveness and increased within-species behavioral variation in social spiders is advantageous, and could be an adaptation to group living that is analogous to the formation of morphological castes within the social insects

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