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Defensive responses in invertebrates: Evolutionary and neural aspects.

Giancarlo Carli¹, Francesca Farabollini¹

¹Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.

Progress in Brain Research

|April 10, 2022

Summary

Defensive immobility, or tonic immobility (TI), evolved in higher animals, not lower invertebrates. This trait impacts survival and mating success, suggesting adaptive roles in both predator-prey and sexual selection dynamics.

Keywords:

Morphological defense Neural organization Sexual conflict Specificity prey-predator TI adaptation TI correlates TI models in higher invertebrates Total fitness

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Area of Science:

Zoology
Evolutionary Biology
Animal Behavior

Background:

Lower invertebrates display withdrawal behaviors like sinking and crumpling as defenses.
Unlike higher phyla, lower invertebrates do not exhibit tonic immobility (TI).
TI is a defensive strategy observed in animals with more complex nervous systems.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolution and adaptive significance of tonic immobility (TI).
To explore the relationship between TI, survival, and mating success.
To understand the role of TI in both interspecific and intraspecific interactions.

Main Methods:

Comparative analysis of defensive behaviors across invertebrate and higher animal phyla.
Examination of prey-predator coevolutionary mechanisms.
Genetic studies on insect TI heritability and its relation to boldness.
Analysis of behavioral syndromes in beetle genetic lines with varying TI durations.

Main Results:

Tonic immobility (TI) is present in higher animal phyla but absent in lower invertebrates.
TI has coevolved with prey-predator interactions, leading to reciprocal phenotypic plasticity.
In insects, TI variability is heritable and inversely correlated with boldness.
Beetles with longer TI durations show increased survival but decreased mating success, indicating behavioral syndromes.

Conclusions:

Tonic immobility (TI) represents an evolved defensive strategy in animals with complex nervous systems.
TI has adaptive significance in predator-prey dynamics and may also play a role in sexual selection.
The study highlights the interplay between defensive behaviors, survival, reproduction, and evolutionary pressures.