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Group leadership depends on energetic state in a nomadic collective foraging caterpillar

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Abstract

Group living is a common strategy among animals and has arisen independently in over 300 species of Lepidoptera. Yet, activity synchrony between individuals is necessary to derive the benefits that ensue from an aggregated lifestyle. Which individuals decide which activities to perform and when to perform them is, therefore, a fundamental question. In some species of social caterpillars and sawflies, the role of a potential behavioral polyethism between individuals has been suggested, whereby certain individuals are consistently more likely to initiate and lead a foraging event. However, in these cases, evidence in support of division of labor is lacking. This study was undertaken to determine if certain individuals of Malacosoma disstria are more likely to be consistent group leaders or if transient leaders could be predicted by the differences in energetic states between individuals. The results of this study indicate that unfed caterpillars initiate foraging bouts and are more likely to lead locomotion. There was no size or sex-based bias in those individuals that acted as temporary leaders. Consistent behavioral differences between individuals, if they exist, are therefore not necessary to explain task allocation and synchronization during foraging in this species.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks go to Dr. Barry Cooke for providing the egg masses and to Stéphane Daigle of Centre d’Étude de la Forêt (CEF) for assistance with the statistical analysis. Financial support was provided by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council as a Discovery Grant to E.D., and by le Fonds Québecois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies as a Graduate Student Research Award to M.M. The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Department, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Melanie McClure, Melissa Ralph & Emma Despland

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  1. Melanie McClure
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  2. Melissa Ralph
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  3. Emma Despland
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Correspondence to Emma Despland.

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Communicated by J. Krause

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McClure, M., Ralph, M. & Despland, E. Group leadership depends on energetic state in a nomadic collective foraging caterpillar. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 1573–1579 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1167-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1167-5

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