Stanley Christina R, Mettke-Hofmann Claudia, Preziosi Richard F
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Chester, Chester, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2017 May 10;12(5):e0176564. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176564. eCollection 2017.
Despite a recent surge in the popularity of animal personality studies and their wide-ranging associations with various aspects of behavioural ecology, our understanding of the development of personality over ontogeny remains poorly understood. Stability over time is a central tenet of personality; ecological pressures experienced by an individual at different life stages may, however, vary considerably, which may have a significant effect on behavioural traits. Invertebrates often go through numerous discrete developmental stages and therefore provide a useful model for such research. Here we test for both differential consistency and age effects upon behavioural traits in the gregarious cockroach Diploptera punctata by testing the same behavioural traits in both juveniles and adults. In our sample, we find consistency in boldness, exploration and sociality within adults whilst only boldness was consistent in juveniles. Both boldness and exploration measures, representative of risk-taking behaviour, show significant consistency across discrete juvenile and adult stages. Age effects are, however, apparent in our data; juveniles are significantly bolder than adults, most likely due to differences in the ecological requirements of these life stages. Size also affects risk-taking behaviour since smaller adults are both bolder and more highly explorative. Whilst a behavioural syndrome linking boldness and exploration is evident in nymphs, this disappears by the adult stage, where links between other behavioural traits become apparent. Our results therefore indicate that differential consistency in personality can be maintained across life stages despite age effects on its magnitude, with links between some personality traits changing over ontogeny, demonstrating plasticity in behavioural syndromes.
尽管动物个性研究最近人气飙升，且与行为生态学的各个方面有着广泛联系，但我们对个性在个体发育过程中的发展仍知之甚少。随时间保持稳定是个性的核心原则；然而，个体在不同生命阶段所经历的生态压力可能有很大差异，这可能对行为特征产生重大影响。无脊椎动物通常会经历多个离散的发育阶段，因此为这类研究提供了一个有用的模型。在这里，我们通过测试群居蟑螂双斑扁鳖幼虫和成虫相同的行为特征，来检验行为特征的差异一致性和年龄效应。在我们的样本中，我们发现成虫在大胆、探索和社交方面具有一致性，而幼虫中只有大胆这一特征具有一致性。代表冒险行为的大胆和探索指标在幼虫和成虫的不同阶段都表现出显著的一致性。然而，年龄效应在我们的数据中很明显；幼虫比成虫明显更大胆，这很可能是由于这些生命阶段生态需求的差异。体型也会影响冒险行为，因为体型较小的成虫更大胆且更具探索性。虽然在若虫阶段，大胆和探索之间的行为综合征很明显，但在成虫阶段这种综合征消失了，此时其他行为特征之间的联系变得明显。因此，我们的结果表明，尽管年龄会对个性的程度产生影响，但个性的差异一致性在不同生命阶段仍可维持，一些个性特征之间的联系在个体发育过程中会发生变化，这表明行为综合征具有可塑性。
