Collective behavior in social caterpillars

Fitzgerald, Terrence D.; Costa, James

doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-8739-7_20

Cited by 37 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Fitzgerald & Costa (1999) discussed how trail-mediated recruitment and group foraging in eastern tent caterpillars gain efficiency as the number of potential searchers and recruiters increases. Greater recruitment efficiency means faster location and consumption of high-quality food, which reduces the energy expenditures involved in foraging and the degree of exposure to predators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitness effects of group merging in a social insect

Costa

Ross

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Animal social groups often consist of non-relatives, a condition that arises in many cases because of group merging. Although indirect fitness contributions are reduced in such groups compared with those in groups composed of close kin, the genetic-heterogeneity hypothesis suggests that these groups may benefit from increased intracolony genetic variation, which may boost group performance through increased task efficiency or parasite resistance. We confirm one prediction of the task-efficiency explanation by demonstrating a genetic basis for task thresholds of socially important behaviours in eastern tent caterpillars. However, we found no evidence that the expanded range of task thresholds in mixed colonies translates into improved individual or colony performance in the field. By contrast, increased group size, a less commonly considered correlate of group mixing, was found to enhance individual fitness through its effects on larval growth. We conclude that fitness benefits offsetting the dilution of relatedness in heterogeneous social groups may often stem from augmented group size rather than increased genotypic diversity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitness effects of group merging in a social insect

Costa

Ross

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…Trails are made of a fine thread of silk extruded from the spinnerets of each passing caterpillar; in many species, this trail is overlaid by a pheromone, and it is the latter that elicits the following behavior, the silk serving mainly for the caterpillars to grip the surface (Fitzgerald and Edgerly, 1979; Fitzgerald and Underwood, 1998b; Fitzgerald and Pescador-Rubio, 2002; Fitzgerald, 2003). Other collective behaviors often observed in caterpillar colonies include group basking, collective defense against predators or parasitoids, shelter building, and collective feeding to overwhelm plant defenses (Fitzgerald, 1993; Costa and Pierce, 1997; Fitzgerald and Costa, 1999; Costa, 2006). …”

Section: Early Spring Caterpillars As Social Organismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasticity of collective behavior in a nomadic early spring folivore

Despland¹

2013

Front. Physiol.

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Collective behavior in the forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) meets the thermal constraints of being an early spring folivore, but introduces other constraints in food choice. These are minimized by state-dependent, inter-individual, and ontogenetic variations in responses to social cues. Forest tent caterpillars use pheromone trails and tactile communication among colony members to stay together during foraging. At the group level, these rules lead to cohesive synchronized collective nomadic foraging, in which the colony travels en masse between feeding and resting sites. This paper proposes that synchronized collective locomotion prevents individuals from becoming separated from the colony and hence permits them to reap the advantages of group-living, notably collective basking to increase their body temperature above ambient and collective defense against natural enemies. However, this cohesive behavior also implies conservative foraging, and colonies can become trapped on poor food sources. High fidelity to pheromone trails leads to strong amplification of an initial choice, such that colonies seldom abandon the first food source contacted, even if a better one is nearby. The risk of this trapping is modulated both by consistent inter-individual variations in exploratory behavior and by inner state. Colonies consisting of active-phenotype or protein-deprived individuals that explore more-off trails exhibit greater collective flexibility in foraging. An ontogenetic shift toward more independent movement occurs as caterpillars grow. This leads to colony break-up as the season advances. Selection pressures facing older caterpillars favor solitary living more than in the earlier instars. Caterpillars respond to this predictably changing environment by altering their behavioral rules as they grow.

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“…Trail marking is ubiquitous among the ants (Formicidae) and termites (Isoptera) (Wilson, 1971) and has been reported from the social caterpillars of a number of lepidopteran and symphytan species as well (Fitzgerald, 1995;Fitzgerald and Underwood, 1998a,b;Fitzgerald and Costa, 1999;Costa and Louque, 2001;Ruf et al, 2001;Flowers and Costa, 2003;Ruf, 2002;Costa et al, in press). Despite the vastness of the Coleoptera and the great diversity of behaviors found among its members, it is noteworthy that there have been no prior studies of either trail-based communal foraging or processionary behavior for any member of the order.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%