CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, Yunnan, China.
Center for Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, Yunnan, China.
Anim Cogn. 2022 Oct;25(5):1345-1355. doi: 10.1007/s10071-022-01618-4. Epub 2022 Apr 9.
Conspecific aggressiveness often increases after social isolation for species that are not entirely solitary, and this increased aggression could also be reversed after resocialization. However, literature on this aggression plasticity refers to either permanently social or low-level subsocial species in invertebrates. Examinations of conspecific aggressiveness reversibility in high-level subsocial invertebrates, in which offspring cohabitate with parents for a certain period of time after sexual maturation, would enhance the understanding of the role of conspecific-aggression plasticity in social evolution. Here, using the lactating spider Toxeus magnus, which exhibits extremely high-level subsociality, we assessed three questions. (1) Is its conspecific aggression affected by social living and/or kinship? The results indicated that conspecific aggression increased after social isolation, while kinship did not affect aggressiveness. (2) Could the social-isolation-induced higher aggression be reversed after resocialization? The results showed that the increased aggression of the spiders could be reversed 3 days after resocialization. (3) What is the proximate mechanism that caused the aggression reversibility by resocialization? A simulated resocialization experiment in which single spider was provided with mirrors demonstrated that the visual cues of conspecifics alone could reverse the aggression after 6 days. These results indicate that the high-level subsocial invertebrate showed aggressiveness reversibility without chemical cues. This is more similar to permanently social species rather than to low-level subsocial species, and visual cues could be vital to induce aggression change. These results suggest that conspecific-aggression reversibility might play a key role in social evolution and may functionally enhance species' adaptiveness under variable conditions.
同种内攻击性行为在非完全独居物种的社交隔离后通常会增加,而这种增加的攻击性也可以在重新社交后逆转。然而,关于这种攻击性可塑性的文献仅涉及无脊椎动物中永久性社交或低水平亚社会性物种。在高水平亚社会性无脊椎动物中,研究同种内攻击性的可逆性,其中后代在性成熟后与父母共同生活一段时间,将增强对同种攻击性可塑性在社会进化中的作用的理解。在这里,我们使用了表现出极高水平亚社会性的哺乳期蜘蛛 Toxeus magnus,评估了三个问题。(1)它的同种内攻击性行为是否受到社交生活和/或亲缘关系的影响?结果表明,同种内攻击性行为在社交隔离后增加,而亲缘关系并不影响攻击性。(2)社交隔离引起的更高攻击性在重新社交后能否逆转?结果表明,蜘蛛的攻击性增加可以在重新社交 3 天后逆转。(3)是什么导致重新社交引起的攻击性逆转的近似机制?一个模拟重新社交的实验,其中一只蜘蛛被提供镜子,表明仅同种的视觉线索可以在 6 天后逆转攻击性。这些结果表明,高水平亚社会性无脊椎动物在没有化学线索的情况下表现出攻击性的可逆性。这更类似于永久性社交物种,而不是低水平亚社会性物种,而视觉线索对于诱导攻击性变化可能至关重要。这些结果表明,同种内攻击性行为的可逆性可能在社会进化中起着关键作用,并可能在可变条件下增强物种的适应性。