scholarly journals Extreme offspring ornamentation in American coots is favored by selection within families, not benefits to conspecific brood parasites

2019 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 2056-2064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce E. Lyon ◽  
Daizaburo Shizuka
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Life History Strategy ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Parental Choice ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Color Variation ◽  
Plumage Color ◽  
Conspecific Brood Parasitism ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
The Face

Offspring ornamentation typically occurs in taxa with parental care, suggesting that selection arising from social interactions between parents and offspring may underlie signal evolution. American coot babies are among the most ornamented offspring found in nature, sporting vividly orange-red natal plumage, a bright red beak, and other red parts around the face and pate. Previous plumage manipulation experiments showed that ornamented plumage is favored by strong parental choice for chicks with more extreme ornamentation but left unresolved the question as to why parents show the preference. Here we explore natural patterns of variation in coot chick plumage color, both within and between families, to understand the context of parental preference and to determine whose fitness interests are served by the ornamentation. Conspecific brood parasitism is common in coots and brood parasitic chicks could manipulate hosts by tapping into parental choice for ornamented chicks. However, counter to expectation, parasitic chicks were duller (less red) than nonparasitic chicks. This pattern is explained by color variation within families: Chick coloration increases with position in the egg-laying order, but parasitic eggs are usually the first eggs a female lays. Maternal effects influence chick coloration, but coot females do not use this mechanism to benefit the chicks they lay as parasites. However, within families, chick coloration predicts whether chicks become “favorites” when parents begin control over food distribution, implicating a role for the chick ornamentation in the parental life-history strategy, perhaps as a reliable signal of a chick’s size or age.

No support for relatedness and kin selection to explain high rates of conspecific brood parasitism in colonial Red-breasted Mergansers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Noel ◽  
Rodger Titman ◽  
Shawn R. Craik
Keyword(s):  
Kin Selection ◽  
Brood Parasitism ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Conspecific Brood Parasitism ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Small Decline ◽  
Diurnal Period

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) has been observed in approximately half of all species of waterfowl, a philopatric group in which breeding females are frequently locally related. It has been suggested that kin selection can facilitate the evolution of CBP in waterfowl via fitness benefits for the host and parasite. One model demonstrates that discrimination of related and unrelated parasites by the host must be sufficient for kinship to promote CBP, provided that costs of brood parasitism to host fitness are sufficiently low. We parameterized the model using demographic data and behavioural observations from a population of colonial Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator (Linnaeus, 1758)) in which 47% of nests were parasitized by conspecifics. The costs of 1-3 foreign eggs to host hatching success were generally small (decline of 1.8% per additional egg). Nevertheless, model outputs revealed that brood parasites maximize their inclusive fitness by avoiding nests of relatives, primarily because of constraints on a host’s ability to detect parasites at the nest. Indeed, hosts spent <8% of the diurnal period at the nest during egg laying, a period when parasite activity is greatest. It is thus highly unlikely that relatedness and kin selection promote brood parasitism in this population.

scholarly journals Adjustment of egg laying by both hosts and intraspecific brood parasites in a beetle

Ethology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Richardson ◽  
Sarah Dobson ◽  
Lucy E. Ford ◽  
Per T. Smiseth
Keyword(s):  
Egg Laying ◽  
Brood Parasites

Facework on Social Media in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Tian ◽  
Qian Li
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Interpersonal Interactions ◽  
The World ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
The Face ◽  
Different Parts

With more social interactions shifting to online venues, the different attributes of major social media sites in China influence how interpersonal interactions are carried out. Despite the lack of physical co-presence online, face culture is extended to online spaces. On social media, Chinese users tend to protect their own face, give face to others, and avoid discrediting the face of others, especially when their online and offline networks overlap. This chapter also discusses the different methods used to study facework online and offline and how facework is studied in different parts of the world. It concludes with a brief discussion of how sociological research has contributed to the study of social media in China and directions for future research.

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary challenges for elucidating human olfactory attractiveness

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1800) ◽  
pp. 20190268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Ferdenzi ◽  
Stéphane Richard Ortegón ◽  
Sylvain Delplanque ◽  
Nicolas Baldovini ◽  
Moustafa Bensafi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Chemical Communication ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
The Body ◽  
Olfactory Communication ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
The Face ◽  
Behavioural Sciences

Many species use chemicals to communicate. In humans, there is increasing evidence that chemicals conveyed by the body are extremely important in interpersonal relationships. However, many aspects of chemical communication remain to be explored to fully understand this function in humans. The aim of this article is to identify relevant challenges in this field, with a focus on human attractiveness in the context of reproduction, and to put forward roadmaps for future studies that will hopefully extend to a wider range of social interactions. The first challenge consists in not being limited to body (mal)odours from the axilla. Preliminary data on how the odour of the face and head is perceived are presented. Second, there is a crucial need to increase our knowledge of the chemical bases of human chemical communication. Third, cross-cultural approaches must not be overlooked, because they have a major input in understanding the universal and culture-specific aspects of chemical communication. Fourth, the influence of specific cultural practices such as contraceptive and fragrance use is likely to be prominent and, therefore, needs to be well described. The fifth and last challenge for research projects in this field is the integration of different disciplines such as behavioural sciences, social sciences, neurosciences and microbiology. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Olfactory communication in humans’.

Testing the simple and complex versions of Gloger’s rule in the Variable Antshrike (Thamnophilus caerulescens, Thamnophilidae)

The Auk ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael S Marcondes ◽  
Katherine Faust Stryjewski ◽  
Robb T Brumfield
Keyword(s):  
Species Distribution ◽  
Negative Correlation ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Color Variation ◽  
South American ◽  
Plumage Color ◽  
Simple Version ◽  
South Central ◽  
Color Data ◽  
Gloger’S Rule

Abstract Gloger’s rule is a classic ecogeographical principle that, in its simplest version, predicts animals should be darker in warmer and wetter climates. In a rarely tested more complex version, it also predicts animals should be more rufous in warmer and drier climates. The Variable Antshrike (Thamnophilus caerulescens) is a widely distributed South American passerine that presents an impressive amount of plumage color variation and occupies a wide variety of climatic conditions. Moreover, genetic and vocal evidence indicate ongoing hybridization in south-central Bolivia among 3 populations with very distinct plumages. We collected color data from 232 specimens from throughout this species’ distribution to test the predictions of Gloger’s rule. We found a negative correlation between brightness and precipitation, consistent with the simple version of Gloger’s rule. In contrast, we found that birds were darker in cooler climates, contrary to the simple version of Gloger’s rule, but consistent with recent findings in other taxa. We found support for both predictions of the complex Gloger’s rule and suggest it might be driven by background matching. We conclude by concurring with a recent suggestion that the simple version of Gloger’s rule should be reformulated exclusively in terms of humidity.

scholarly journals Mutations in SLC45A2 Cause Plumage Color Variation in Chicken and Japanese Quail

Genetics ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 175 (2) ◽  
pp. 867-877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrika Gunnarsson ◽  
Anders R. Hellström ◽  
Michele Tixier-Boichard ◽  
Francis Minvielle ◽  
Bertrand Bed'hom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Japanese Quail ◽  
Color Variation ◽  
Plumage Color

Characterization of MC1R in silky fowl, a special black-bone rooster in China

2012 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-377
Author(s):  
Liang Chi ◽  
Xiaofeng Sun ◽  
Ming Zou ◽  
Huanqi Liu
Keyword(s):  
Nutritive Value ◽  
Transgenic Animals ◽  
Gallus Gallus ◽  
Eukaryotic Expression ◽  
Color Variation ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Plumage Color ◽  
Coding Region ◽  
Phylogenetic Tree Analysis ◽  
Close Relationship

The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) plays an important role in determining plumage color, and the variants of MC1R have been found to be associated with the color of plumage and skin in both domestic and wild birds. However, the molecular and genetic mechanism for plumage color variation has not been reported in silky fowl, which is a unique subspecies in China with high nutritive value. We sequenced and analyzed the encoding region of MC1R from silky fowl. The predicted coding region of MC1R is 945 bp, which is the same size as the one in Gallus gallus. Six nucleotide polymorphisms that lead to four protein mutations were detected, which were M71T, E92K, S124G and H215P, respectively. Among the four mutations, the S124G mutation is found to be unique to silky fowl. A phylogenetic tree analysis of MC1R from silky fowl and other species of chicken shows a close relationship between silky fowl and Gallus gallus. Furthermore, the eukaryotic expression vector pEGFP-N1-MC1R was constructed, and transfected into goat fibroblasts by means of electroporation. The success of MC1R gene expression in transfected goat fibroblasts makes it possible to develop transgenic animals for further studies.

Habitat and space use of European cuckoo females during the egg laying period

Behaviour ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 141 (7) ◽  
pp. 881-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Taborsky ◽  
Marcel Honza ◽  
Wolfgang Vogl ◽  
Yvonne Teuschl ◽  
Michael Taborsky
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Use ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Habitat Availability ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Territorial Behaviour ◽  
Cuculus Canorus ◽  
Suitable Host ◽  
Individual Female ◽  
Use Of Space ◽  
Brood Parasites

AbstractIn brood parasites, knowledge of spacing behaviour, habitat use and territoriality may reveal cues about how parasites find and use their hosts. To study the use of space and habitat of European cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, we radio-tagged 16 females during four consecutive reproductive seasons. We hypothesized that during the laying period cuckoo females should (1) use habitats selectively, and (2) attempt to monopolize potential egg laying areas to reduce competition for host nests. Our data are consistent with the first hypothesis: the use of pond edges compared to forest and transitional habitats was significantly greater than expected from the habitat availability in the total area and within individual female home ranges. All 26 directly observed egg layings and 27 nest visits without laying occurred at pond edges in nests of Acrocephalus spp. Females spent significantly more time at pond edges on egglaying days than on non-laying days. The second hypothesis was not supported: female home ranges overlapped similarly in all three major habitat categories of the potential egg laying areas, and only little aggression was observed between females. We discuss whether female cuckoos may lack territorial behaviour because they are not able to defend egg laying areas economically or because defence is not necessary due to sufficient availability of suitable host nests.

scholarly journals The ghosts of parasitism past: lingering frontline anti-brood parasite defences in a former host

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H J Chaumont ◽  
Naomi E Langmore ◽  
Justin A Welbergen
Keyword(s):  
Brood Parasitism ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Brood Parasite ◽  
Reed Warbler ◽  
Arms Races ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Defensive Behaviors

Abstract Coevolutionary arms races between brood parasites and hosts provide tractable systems for understanding antagonistic coevolution in nature; however, little is known about the fate of frontline antiparasite defences when the host ‘wins’ the coevolutionary arms race. By recreating bygone species-interactions, using artificial parasitism experiments, lingering defensive behaviors that evolved in the context of parasitism can be understood and may even be used to identify the unknown agent of parasitism past. Here we present the first study of this type by evaluating lingering “frontline” nest defences that have evolved to prevent egg laying in a former brood parasite host. The Australian reed warbler Acrocephalus australis, is currently not parasitized but is known to exhibit fine-tuned egg discrimination—a defensive behavior indicative of a past brood parasite-host arms race and common in closely related parasitized species. Here, using 3 D-printed models of adult brood parasites, we examined whether the Australian reed warbler also exhibits frontline defences to adult brood parasites, and whether we could use these defences to identify the warbler’s “ghost of parasitism past”. Our findings provide evidence that the Australian reed warbler readily engages in frontline defences that are considered adaptive specifically in the context of brood parasitism. However, individuals were unable to discriminate between adults of different brood parasite species at their nest. Overall, our results demonstrate that despite a relaxation in selection, defences against brood parasitism can be maintained across multiple stages of the host’s nesting cycle, and further suggest that, in accordance with previous findings, that learning may be important for fine-tuning frontline defence.

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