Maternal Territoriality Achieved Through Shaking and Lunging: An Investigation of Patterns in Associated Behaviors and Substrate Vibrations in a Colonial Embiopteran,Antipaluria urichi

Abstract

Substrate vibration communication is displayed by a variety of insects that rely on silk for shelter. Such signaling is often associated with territoriality and social interactions. The goal in this study was to explore the use of substrate vibration by subsocial insects of the little-studied order Embioptera (also known as Embiidina). Antipaluria urichi (Saussure) (Embioptera: Clothodidae) from Trinidad and Tobago, a large embiopteran, exhibits maternal care and facultatively colonial behavior. Previous observations suggested that they were aggressive while guarding eggs but gregarious when not. Egg-guarders in particular have been observed shaking and lunging their bodies, but to date these putative signals have not been recorded nor were their contexts known. Staged interactions were conducted in the laboratory using residents that had established silk domiciles enveloping piezo-electric film used to detect vibrations. Predictions from two competing hypotheses, the maternal territoriality hypothesis and the group cohesion hypothesis, were erected to explain the occurrence of signaling. Experiments pitted pre-reproductive and egg-guarding residents against female and male intruders, representing social partners that ranged from potentially threatening to innocuous or even helpful. Behavioral acts were identified and scored along with associated substrate vibrations, which were measured for associated body movements, duration, and frequency spectra. Signals, sorted by the distinct actions used to generate them, were lunge, shake, push up, and snapback. Egg-guarding females produced most signals in response to female intruders, a result that supported the maternal territoriality hypothesis. Female intruders generally responded to such signaling by moving away from egg-guarding residents. In contrast, pre-reproductive residents did not signal much, and intruders settled beside them. Theme software was used to analyze the behavioral event recordings to seek patterns over time and their association with signals. Long patterns of behavioral acts were associated with shakes, lunges, and push-ups, indicating that interactions were occurring between the residents and intruders as would be expected when communication occurs. The value of Theme software, as well as the relationship between signaling by A. urichi and the risks and benefits of coloniality, are discussed.

Dispersal Risks and Decisions Shape How Non-kin Groups Form in a Tropical Silk-Sharing Webspinner (Insecta: Embioptera)

“…These traits do not appear to typify webspinners beyond the silk-sharing tendencies. The communication signals we discovered are short-distance messages between egg-guarding females and possible intruders; not signals for an entire diffuse colony of silk-sharers (Dejan et al, 2013). Furthermore, based on my experience and that of Ross (2000b), webspinners from throughout their range can be reared in the laboratory on the same foods: romaine lettuce and lichens.…”

“…In the 2013 lab experiment, individual pre-reproductive females shook when an intruder entered their silk but quickly stopped signaling and allowed the intruder to settle next to her. Egg-guarding females, in contrast, displayed more vigorous, numerous and varied signals (lunge, shake, snapback, and push-up) directed toward female intruders (nymphs and adults alike) (see Figure 5 in Dejan et al, 2013). Despite the more aggressive responses by these egg-guarders, intruders tended to settle in the silk covering but would stay a short distance from the resident female thus avoiding triggering her aggressive responses.…”

“…When experimental dispersers chose to enter another's domicile residents responded aggressively. Detailed laboratory experiments examining how residents respond to intruders (Dejan et al, 2013) showed that resident adult females signal with various shaking movements when individuals attempt to join their silk. The same response by residents was observed for the field disperser experiment described above.…”

A Systematic Review of the Use of T-Pattern and T-String Analysis (TPA) With Theme: An Analysis Using Mixed Methods and Data Mining Techniques

“…It seems that human societies are fully connected and stem from nano-creatures (Magnusson, 2020a). Human specialization is considered unique among animal species, as text coding increasingly resembles the specialization of the various proteins involved in structural and organizational processes within an organism (Dejan et al, 2013). The specific tasks in each human cell are regulated by how they are encoded, and errors in transformation of information can lead to cellular malignancy that can be predicted, detected and prevented if we know the patterns of these behaviors (Nicol et al, 2015).…”

T-pattern analysis for the study of temporal structure of animal and human behavior: A comprehensive review

“…Interestingly, the authors showed that high frequency of specific insect's activities did not imply the inclusion of these frequent behavioral events in temporal patterns. In a more recent article T-pattern analysis has been used to study the behavior and maternal territoriality of insects of the order Embioptera (Dejan et al, 2013). The analysis revealed various interactions occurring between residents and intruders and that the behavioral responses of intruders to female signals were not predictable.…”