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Toxic personalities: are chemical defences and boldness correlated?

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Abstract

The trait compensation and cospecialization hypotheses make contrasting predictions on how boldness is co-adapted with antipredator defences. If trait compensation occurs, then bold individuals should be equipped with better antipredator defences to compensate for their increased risk exposure. By contrast, if trait co-specialization occurs, shy individuals should be equipped with better antipredator defences to enhance overall protection from predation. Here, we test the two alternative hypotheses by evaluating the among- and within-individual relationships between boldness and chemical defences in the American giant millipede (Narceus americanus; order Spirobolida). After controlling for test sequence, body length, air temperature, and time of day, latency to conglobate (i.e. “curl up”) upon disturbance and duration of conglobation were both found to be repeatable (R = 0.28 and 0.35). Moreover, the latency and duration of conglobation were negatively correlated at both the among- and within-individual levels (r =  − 0.46 and − 0.32). Hence, individuals displayed consistent differences in risk-taking along a “shy-bold” axis. Millipedes also displayed—albeit weaker—individual differences in their probability to secrete chemical defences (R = 0.12), but no significant relationship was found with conglobation latency or duration. Overall, these results suggest that chemical defences evolved separately from the shy-bold axis (as measured with conglobation behaviour) as two independent antipredator strategies in millipedes.

Significance statement

Many species assume a defensive pose when threatened to protect themselves from predators, which makes them conducive to boldness measurements in a way that is directly relevant to antipredator strategies. The question arises as to whether boldness is co-adapted with other antipredator defences. Here, we demonstrate the existence of a shy-bold axis in American giant millipedes, which both conglobate into a defensive position and secrete a defensive fluid when threatened. We also found consistent individual differences in the propensity to secrete chemical defences, but with no relationship to boldness. While many studies have looked at the relationship between boldness and morphological defences (e.g. size of a protective shell), this is the first study to have partitioned the among- and within-individual correlations between boldness and chemical defences. Despite their importance as predator deterrents, chemical defences seem to have evolved independently from boldness in this species.

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Data availability

Raw data and R code were provided as supplementary files upon the first submission.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Vincent Careau for his mentorship. Further thanks must be paid to the personnel of the Queen’s University Biological Station, as well as A. Chiasson and H. Moran-Macdonald for their assistance with data entry.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, 30 Marie Curie, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada

    Adam G. Duchesne & Vincent Careau

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Duchesne, A.G., Careau, V. Toxic personalities: are chemical defences and boldness correlated?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 76, 108 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-022-03217-2

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