Highlights • Invertebrates representing 98% of all species are neglected in personality research • The lack of data confines comparative analyses to unravel personality evolution • Invertebrates’ diverse life-histories offer new avenues for personality research • Invertebrate species with short generation times provide methodological advantages
COBISS.SI-ID: 36883757
The aggressive spillover hypothesis (ASH) interprets the excessive pre-copulatory cannibalism as a carry-over of a highly aggressive female personality onto mating context, and was proposed to be mal-adaptive in certain systems. In our manuscript we critically reviewed studies investigating the ASH, and evaluated them through sexual biology and personality framework. We point out the semantic and conceptual pitfalls and suggested further experimental manipulations for testing the validity of ASH. Furthermore, we argued that other factors, such a mate choice and hunger, should be carefully estimated to explain pre-copulatory cannibalism. Particularly, ( mal-)adaptiveness of pre-copulatory cannibalism should be investigated in more depth, in the laboratory and field conditions.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35783213
We are increasingly aware of individual differences in behaviour aka personalities across animal taxa. However, how various behavioural types are maintained, have been rarely tested experimentally. We investigated whether the aggressiveness type in spider Larinioides sclopetarious influences the probability of mating and whether the mating pattern could be important for maintaining the variation. We found that aggressive males tended to mate with aggressive females while less aggressive males were more likely to copulate with less aggressive females. We concluded that assortative mating by behavioural type is a potential mechanism that together with frequency dependent selection maintains the existence of consistent behavioural types.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35503661
Behaviour is generally plastic to some degree and allows an animal to react appropriately to changing and novel conditions. Consequently, a degree of plasticity is predicted to be a key determinant of an organism’s ability to cope with novel (e.g. urban) environments. Yet behavioural plasticity is often genetically determined and many animals exhibit personalities. We explored the degree of behavioural plasticity versus stability (personality) in the bridge spider, Larinioides sclopetarius, which occurs in extremely high densities in urban areas over the Holarctic; and show extraordinary plasticity in life histories. We found temporal consistency and moderate heritability in intrasex aggressiveness and boldness, whereas behaviours in novel environment were repeatable but not heritable. We discussed the idea that low heritability of behaviours related to foraging success and a lack of behavioural correlations may be a result of developmental plasticity as a mechanism that promotes success in cities. In the next step, we experimentally tested whether composition of aggressiveness types affects spiders’ mass gain and survival in a high density group. Groups of only aggressive types had highest mass but also showed highest mortality. Our results lend support to the hypothesis that living in high densities does not require a reduction of mean aggressiveness levels but that a polymorphism in aggressive personalities maintained by negative frequency dependent selection would be a possible scenario.
COBISS.SI-ID: 34213165