Life‐history trade‐offs mediate ‘personality’ variation in two colour morphs of the pea aphid,Acyrthosiphon pisum

Abstract

Summary1. Life-history trade-offs are considered a major driving force in the emergence of consistent behavioural differences (personality variation); but empirical tests are scarce. 2. We investigated links between a personality trait (escape response), life-history and state variables (growth rate, size and age at first reproduction, age-dependent reproductive rates, lifetime reproductive success, life span) in red and green colour morphs of clonal pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum. Escape response (dropping/non-dropping off a plant upon a predatory attack) was measured repeatedly to classify individuals as consistent droppers, consistent nondroppers or inconsistents. 3. Red morphs experienced stronger trade-offs between early reproduction and life span than green morphs; and red consistent (non)droppers had highest lifetime reproductive success. Red droppers followed a risk-averse life-history strategy (high late reproduction), red nondroppers a risk-prone strategy (high early reproduction), while reproductive rates were equivalent for all green behavioural types and red inconsistents. 4. This suggests that red morphs suffer the highest costs of dropping (they are most conspicuous to predators), which 'equivalates' fitness payoffs to both risk-takers (red non-droppers) and risk-averse red droppers. The strong trade-off also means that committing to a particular lifestyle (being consistent) maximises fitness. 5. Our study suggests that life-history trade-offs likely mediate personality variation but effects might depend on interactions with other organismal characteristics (here: colour morph).

Fast–slow life history is correlated with individual differences in movements and prey selection in an aquatic predator in the wild

“…; Schuett et al . ), supporting the hypothesis that the pace‐of‐life syndrome extends to encompass behaviour (Réale et al . ).…”

Early Environmental Conditions Shape Personality Types in a Jumping Spider

“…Hypotheses that explain the adaptive value of animal personalities are linked to information use (McElreath and Strimling, 2006;Wolf et al, 2008), life-history (McElreath et al, 2007;Wolf et al, 2007), sexual selection (Schuett et al, 2010), and social interactions (McNamara et al, 2009) amongst others (Mangel, 1991;Dall et al, 2004;Nettle, 2006;Réale et al, 2007;Dingemanse and Wolf, 2010), yet empirical tests of these hypotheses remain scarce (but see e.g., Schuett et al, 2011b;Kralj-Fišer and Schneider, 2012;Nicolaus et al, 2012;Schuett et al, 2015). In order to understand the evolution of personality differences, it is also crucial to elucidate the development of personality differences.…”

Evolutionary divergence in life history traits among populations of the Lake Malawi cichlid fishAstatotilapia calliptera

“…Increased gestation associated with more extensive brain development has also been reported in mammals (Barton & Capellini, ; Sacher & Staffeldt, ). Also, since personality has been linked to several life history traits (Biro & Stamps, ; Niemela, Dingemanse, Alioravainen, Vainikka, & Kortet, ; Schuett et al., ; Wolf, van Doorn, Leimar, & Weissing, ), brood time may be related to particular personality traits that vary among A. calliptera populations. It is also not clear why incubation time should be negatively related to brood size.…”