Dispersal, endosymbiont abundance and fitness-related consequences of inbreeding and outbreeding in a social beetle

2020 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-727
Author(s):  
Martin Tremmel ◽  
Hadas Steinitz ◽  
Adi Kliot ◽  
Ally Harari ◽  
Yael Lubin
Keyword(s):  
Extended Family ◽  
Brood Care ◽  
Dispersal Behaviour ◽  
Ecological Benefits ◽  
Early Maturation ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Coccotrypes Dactyliperda ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Abstract Most social species outbreed. However, some have persistent inbreeding with occasional outbreeding, and the decision of the individual regarding whether to stay in the natal group and inbreed or to disperse, with the potential to outbreed, is flexible and may depend on social, genetic and ecological benefits and costs. Few of these factors have been investigated experimentally in these systems. The beetle Coccotrypes dactyliperda Fabricius, 1801 (Scolytidae: Xyloborinae) lives in extended family colonies inside date seeds. The beetles inbreed, but some individuals disperse away from the natal seed and may outbreed. We investigated dispersal behaviour and assessed fitness-related measures in inbred and outbred offspring, in addition to the relative abundance of two endosymbionts. We predicted inbred offspring to have higher fitness-related measures and a reduced tendency to disperse than outbred offspring, owing to fitness benefits of cooperation within the colony, whereas increased endosymbiont abundance will promote dispersal of their hosts, thus enhancing their own spread in the population. Dispersing beetles were more active than ones that remained in the natal seed. As predicted, fewer inbred offspring dispersed than outbred offspring, but they matured and dispersed earlier. Fitness-related measures of inbred mothers were either lower (number of offspring) or not different (body mass) from those of outbred mothers. Inbred dispersers had greater amounts of Wolbachia, suggesting a role in dispersal. The results support the hypothesis that inbred females reduce dispersal and that early maturation and dispersal are likely to be benefits of increased cooperation in brood care.

scholarly journals Factors influencing within-group conflict over defence against conspecific outsiders seeking breeding positions

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1893) ◽  
pp. 20181669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Schindler ◽  
Andrew N. Radford
Keyword(s):  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Relative Fitness ◽  
Shared Resources ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Species Groups ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Related Mortality

In social species, groups face a variety of threats from conspecific outsiders. Defensive actions are therefore common, but there is considerable variation in which individuals contribute and to what extent. There has been some theoretical exploration of this variation when the defence is of shared resources, but the relative contributions when a single intruder threatens a particular breeding position have received less attention. Defensive actions are costly, both for the individual and dependent young, and contributions are likely to differ depending on individual sex, rank and size, current breeding stage, infanticide risk and relatedness levels. Here, we model analytically the relative fitness benefits of different group members to engaging in defence against individual intruders and determine when within-group conflicts of interest might arise over these defensive contributions. Conflicts of interest between the challenged breeder and other group members depend on relatedness to the brood and the potential relatedness reduction if an intruder acquires breeding status. Conflicts are more likely to occur when there is a low chance of winning the contest, low infanticide rates, inefficient defence from helpers, a long remaining brood-dependency period and high external (non-contest-related) mortality. Our work can help explain variation in defensive actions against out-group threats.

scholarly journals Individual behavioural traits not social context affects learning about novel objects in archerfish

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick A. R. Jones ◽  
Helen C. Spence-Jones ◽  
Mike Webster ◽  
Luke Rendell
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Behavioural Phenotype ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Learning can enable rapid behavioural responses to changing conditions but can depend on the social context and behavioural phenotype of the individual. Learning rates have been linked to consistent individual differences in behavioural traits, especially in situations which require engaging with novelty, but the social environment can also play an important role. The presence of others can modulate the effects of individual behavioural traits and afford access to social information that can reduce the need for ‘risky’ asocial learning. Most studies of social effects on learning are focused on more social species; however, such factors can be important even for less-social animals, including non-grouping or facultatively social species which may still derive benefit from social conditions. Using archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, which exhibit high levels of intra-specific competition and do not show a strong preference for grouping, we explored the effect of social contexts on learning. Individually housed fish were assayed in an ‘open-field’ test and then trained to criterion in a task where fish learnt to shoot a novel cue for a food reward—with a conspecific neighbour visible either during training, outside of training or never (full, partial or no visible presence). Time to learn to shoot the novel cue differed across individuals but not across social context. This suggests that social context does not have a strong effect on learning in this non-obligatory social species; instead, it further highlights the importance that inter-individual variation in behavioural traits can have on learning. Significance statement Some individuals learn faster than others. Many factors can affect an animal’s learning rate—for example, its behavioural phenotype may make it more or less likely to engage with novel objects. The social environment can play a big role too—affecting learning directly and modifying the effects of an individual’s traits. Effects of social context on learning mostly come from highly social species, but recent research has focused on less-social animals. Archerfish display high intra-specific competition, and our study suggests that social context has no strong effect on their learning to shoot novel objects for rewards. Our results may have some relevance for social enrichment and welfare of this increasingly studied species, suggesting there are no negative effects of short- to medium-term isolation of this species—at least with regards to behavioural performance and learning tasks.

Embeddedness and entrepreneurial traditions

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Elo ◽  
Leo-Paul Dana
Keyword(s):  
Social Ties ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Original Culture ◽  
New Locations ◽  
Business Entities ◽  
Time Changes ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Context Specific

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how entrepreneurship traditions evolve in diaspora. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple case study examining the role of diaspora embeddedness, extended family, ethno-religious-, cultural- and social ties and relevant structures shaping diaspora entrepreneurship. Findings The authors found that social ties and diaspora embeddedness create dynamism fostering entrepreneurial identity as a part of the Bukharian culture, and as a preferred career option in the context of Bukharian Jews in diaspora. Diasporic family businesses are products of culture and tradition that migrate to new locations with families and communities, not as disconnected business entities. Research limitations/implications The ways in which families nurture a highly entrepreneurial culture that transfers across generations and contexts are context-specific and not per se generalizable to other diasporas. Practical implications Diasporans often continue their traditions and become again entrepreneurs after their settlement, or they may generate hybrid, circular solutions that allow them to employ their competences in the new contexts or connecting various contexts. This calls for transnational entrepreneurship-policymaking. Social implications Time changes diasporas. A long-term commitment to the business environment evolves and reduces the mobility of the individual diasporan; typically the children of these migrants become more integrated and develop divergent career paths. Hence, their plans are not necessarily including family entrepreneurship creating a challenge for continuation of the original culture of entrepreneurship. Originality/value Despite a notable tradition in Jewish studies, there is limited research on Jewish entrepreneurial diaspora and its contemporary entrepreneurial identity and tradition. Furthermore, the population of Bukharian Jews is an unknown and under-explored highly entrepreneurial group that may offer instrumental views to larger diasporic audiences being concerned about maintaining notions of ethnic heritage and identity.

Family influence on career decisions: perceptions of Latin American CEOs

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Rita Blanco ◽  
Mariela N. Golik
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Multinational Firms ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
Career Decisions ◽  
Family Factors ◽  
Family Influence ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Career Literature

PurposeThe career is a space where family and work lives amalgamate. The role of work for the individual, and the meaning of work within the culture, will determine the relevance of family. This study investigates CEOs' perception about conjugal family influence on career decisions, and it examines family factors.Design/methodology/approachThrough a qualitative study, 22 Latin American CEOs who work for multinational firms were interviewed in a semi-structured way.FindingsNot all career decisions were influenced by conjugal family. CEOs varied in the extent to which they considered their families when reflecting on their career decisions. Expatriation, joining or quitting an organization and change of area of work were found as those decisions perceived to be influenced by conjugal family. Family support, family structure and family demands and responsibilities were identified as the family factors involved. In spite of the role salience, family factors influenced some of CEOs' career decisions, in part, due to the cultural characteristics of the Latin American environment. The instrumental support of the extended family, as part of collectivist societies, was also evidenced.Practical implicationsA better understanding of the family influenced decisions and family factors involved may enhance individual career decision-making as well as organizational career management processes and public initiatives.Originality/valueThis study contributes to family and career literature, being the first one to explore the conjugal family influence upon CEOs' career decisions.

scholarly journals Evolutionary significance of maternal kinship in a long-lived mammal

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1780) ◽  
pp. 20180067 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily C. Lynch ◽  
Virpi Lummaa ◽  
Win Htut ◽  
Mirkka Lahdenperä
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
Female Reproduction ◽  
Life History Data ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Preferential treatment of kin is widespread across social species and is considered a central prerequisite to the evolution of cooperation through kin selection. Though it is well known that, among most social mammals, females will remain within their natal group and often bias social behaviour towards female maternal kin, less is known about the fitness consequences of these relationships. We test the fitness benefits of living with maternal sisters, measured by age-specific female reproduction, using an unusually large database of a semi-captive Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ) population. This study system is particularly valuable to an exploration of reproductive trends in a long-lived mammal, because it includes life-history data that span multiple generations, enabling a study of the effects of kinship across a female's lifespan. We find that living near a sister significantly increased the likelihood of annual reproduction among young female elephants, and this effect was strongest when living near a sister 0–5 years younger. Our results show that fitness benefits gained from relationships with kin are age-specific, establish the basis necessary for the formation and maintenance of close social relationships with female kin, and highlight the adaptive importance of matriliny in a long-lived mammal. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.

scholarly journals Individual-Level and Population-Level Lateralization: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Symmetry ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Frasnelli ◽  
Giorgio Vallortigara
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategy ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategies ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable

Lateralization, i.e., the different functional roles played by the left and right sides of the brain, is expressed in two main ways: (1) in single individuals, regardless of a common direction (bias) in the population (aka individual-level lateralization); or (2) in single individuals and in the same direction in most of them, so that the population is biased (aka population-level lateralization). Indeed, lateralization often occurs at the population-level, with 60–90% of individuals showing the same direction (right or left) of bias, depending on species and tasks. It is usually maintained that lateralization can increase the brain’s efficiency. However, this may explain individual-level lateralization, but not population-level lateralization, for individual brain efficiency is unrelated to the direction of the asymmetry in other individuals. From a theoretical point of view, a possible explanation for population-level lateralization is that it may reflect an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) that can develop when individually asymmetrical organisms are under specific selective pressures to coordinate their behavior with that of other asymmetrical organisms. This prediction has been sometimes misunderstood as it is equated with the idea that population-level lateralization should only be present in social species. However, population-level asymmetries have been observed in aggressive and mating displays in so-called “solitary” insects, suggesting that engagement in specific inter-individual interactions rather than “sociality” per se may promote population-level lateralization. Here, we clarify that the nature of inter-individuals interaction can generate evolutionarily stable strategies of lateralization at the individual- or population-level, depending on ecological contexts, showing that individual-level and population-level lateralization should be considered as two aspects of the same continuum.

Linguistic Relativity in Fiji: A Preliminary Study

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 69-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Extended Family ◽  
The Other ◽  
Relativity Theory ◽  
Linguistic Relativity ◽  
Extended Study ◽  
Experimental Support ◽  
The Family ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Group Reading ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThere is a lack of experimental support for Linguistic Relativity Theory (LRT), which has not been tested in a South Pacific context. Fifty-two bilingual male (n = 26) and female Fijians read, and answered survey questions on the family dilemma, “An Unwanted Child?” - one group functioning in English and the other in Fijian. The group reading and answering in Fijian tended to place more emphasis on the rights of the extended family, whereas the group reading and responding in English placed more emphasis on the rights of the individual. These preliminary findings are consistent with LRT theory, and form the basis for more extended study, including perhaps a wider range of dilemmas and linguistic abilities (e.g., Fijians living in Australia).

scholarly journals Perceptions de pères vivant avec un fils ou une fille adulte ayant une déficience intellectuelle sur la transition de l’après-parents

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 468-480
Author(s):  
Zoé Faubert ◽  
Georgette Goupil
Keyword(s):  
Extended Family ◽  
Rehabilitation Services ◽  
Individual Interview ◽  
Déficience Intellectuelle ◽  
The Family ◽  
People With Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Family Home ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Housing Options ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACTWith the increase in life expectancy, many people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are living in the family home with their parents. This research focuses on the experience of 17 fathers of adults with ID. These fathers answered a questionnaire including open and closed questions. During the individual interview, fathers described their motivations to cohabit with their son or daughter, cohabitation benefits and constraints, housing options considered and planning for the future. Results indicate that fathers chose this cohabitation. However, they experience anxiety because they do not know who will support the adult with ID when they can no longer do so. Postparental planning considerations include legal concerns and informal discussions with siblings or the extended family. These results describe a complex parental situation in which there is interaction between their emotions, their attachment to the adult with ID and their previous experiences with residential, social or rehabilitation services.

scholarly journals Fitness benefits and costs of floral advertising traits: insights from rayed and rayless phenotypes ofAnacyclus(Asteraceae)

2019 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-243
Author(s):  
José Cerca ◽  
Alicia B. Agudo ◽  
Sílvia Castro ◽  
Ana Afonso ◽  
Inés Alvarez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Benefits And Costs
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