Informace o publikaci
Looking for individual differences in highly conservative spiders
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2025 |
| Druh | Projekty výzkumu a vývoje |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | Highlights • Zodarion rubidum spiders showed high consistency in aggressiveness, moderate in exploration • Aggressiveness affects predatory efficiency - more aggressive spiders attacked prey faster, achieved quicker paralysis, and tended to make more attacks • Sex affected attack frequency - males performed significantly more attacks than females • No assortative mating was observed Animal personality—consistent individual differences in behavior—has been shown to shape ecological and evolutionary outcomes, but its role in specialized predators with streotyped behaviour remains poorly understood. We investigated how individual variation in exploration and aggressiveness affects hunting tactics, predatory performance, kleptobiosis, and mating behavior in the ant-eating spider Zodarion rubidum. Using repeated assays, we confirmed high repeatability in aggressiveness and moderate repeatability in exploration, indicating stable personality traits. Aggressiveness, but not exploration, caused shorter attack latency, higher attack frequency, and faster paralysis of prey, suggesting that more aggressive individuals are more effective hunters. However, personality traits did not significantly influence attack orientation (i.e., front, peripheral or hind) or paralysis efficiency as measured by the delay between attack and prey immobilization. Furtherore, neither exploration nor aggressiveness predicted kleptobiotic behavior or mating success, and no significant effects of exploratory phenotype combinations (pair types) were detected. These findings demonstrate that while aggressiveness influences individual hunting performance in this specialist predator, its role in behaviors like mating and kleptobiosis may be limited or context-dependent. Our study highlights that even in highly stereotyped foragers, personality can shape foraging efficiency, offering insights into the evolutionary ecology of specialization. |