Data from: The last of us: Social information enhances trappability in fruit flies
Data files
Sep 10, 2025 version files 21.23 KB
-
Appendix_Social_Traps_102623.csv
12.67 KB
-
README.md
3.95 KB
-
Social_Traps_092223.csv
4.61 KB
Abstract
When facing novel conditions, animals must make decisions crucial to survival with little precedence. Such decisions are not made in isolation: animals collect information by observing conspecifics, suggesting that social information may modify the population-level impact of shifting environmental conditions. We tested the competing hypotheses that social information could help or hinder animals to avoid an evolutionary trap, a phenomenon often created by anthropogenic modification. By manipulating the magnitude of a social cue, we examined how the number of already-drowned conspecifics influenced fruit flies’ (Drosophila melanogaster) responses to vinegar traps. We found that flies were faster to drown in traps with more conspecifics, supporting the hypothesis that social information can facilitate maladaptive decisions. Moreover, sex and prior mating experience drove variation in this response: mated females had higher survival probabilities compared to unmated females and males. This work highlights how anthropogenic change can shift the fitness benefits of social information reliance, potentially making evolutionary traps even deadlier.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ht76hdrvq
Description of the data and file structure
This data is from a series of behavioral experiments with fruit flies to test the competing hypotheses that social information could help or hinder animals to avoid an evolutionary trap. By manipulating the magnitude of a social cue, we examined how the number of already-drowned conspecifics influenced fruit flies’ responses to vinegar traps.
Files and variables
File: Social_Traps_092223.csv
Description: Data for analysis in main manuscript
Variables
- Date: date of trial
- Arena: arena, up to 25 arena locations per day
- Treatment: number of drowned conspecifics within a trap
- Focal: focal sex and mating experience identity (i.e., mated male (M_m), unmated female (F_v), mated female (F_m))
- Trap_side: relative location of trap compared to food within the arena
- Time_in: time of day focal fly was aspirated into the arena
- Location_1hr: location of fly 1 hr after fly was first aspirated into the arena (T = alive perched on trap vial; A = alive within the arena; F = alive perched on food vial; D = dead, trapped; Tip = in the pipette tip, not yet entered the arena)
- Location_3hr: location of fly 3 hr after fly was first aspirated into the arena (see Location_1hr for details)
- Location_5hr: location of fly 5 hr after fly was first aspirated into the arena (see Location_1hr for details)
- Location_24hr: location of fly 24 hr after fly was first aspirated into the arena (see Location_1hr for details)
- Trapped_within: time period within which fly was found dead in the trap. Blank = fly was alive and not dead
File: Appendix_Social_Traps_102623.csv
Description: Data for analysis in appendix
Variables
- Date: date of trial
- Treatment: treatment of vinegar trap, either experimental (i.e., with soap added) or control (i.e., no soap addded)
- ID: individual fly ID for focal fly
- Sex: fly sex either female (F) or male (M)
- Sex_Treatment: unique code for the combination of sex and treatment
- Trapped_within: time period within which fly was found dead in the trap
- 10min: location of fly 10 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena (numbers correspond to region of the vial fly was found in and represent that the fly's location was recorded when alive every 10 minutes). No location indicates that the fly was found dead in the trap at the ten minute mark.
- 20min: location of fly 20 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 30min: location of fly 30 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 40min: location of fly 40 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 50min: location of fly 50 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 60min: location of fly 60 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 70min: location of fly 70 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 80min: location of fly 80 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 90min: location of fly 90 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 100min: location of fly 100 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 110min: location of fly 110 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 120min: location of fly 120 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
- 130min: location of fly 130 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena
Code/software
Data and code to generate statistics and figures are available at: https://github.com/ljpollack/socialtraps.
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- Data and code to generate statistics and figures are available at: https://github.com/ljpollack/socialtraps.