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Assessment of Social Interaction Behaviors

Assessment of Social Interaction Behaviors

Published on: February 25, 2011

Direct and indirect phenotypic effects on sociability indicate potential to evolve.

David N Fisher¹

¹School of Biological Sciences, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

|October 20, 2022

Summary

Social behavior in cockroaches is influenced by genes and partner traits. Sex-specific preferences for associating with larger or smaller individuals suggest potential for sexual conflict and dimorphism.

Keywords:

cockroach group size heritability indirect genetic effects interaction coefficient personality repeatability sociability social network

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Area of Science:

Behavioral Ecology
Evolutionary Genetics
Animal Behavior

Background:

Group size significantly impacts organismal fitness and life history.
Sociability, the tendency to associate with others, is theoretically influenced by direct and indirect genetic effects.
Estimating these genetic influences on social behavior is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

To estimate phenotypic parameters for sociability in cockroaches, specifically repeatability (R) and repeatable influence (RI).
To quantify the interaction coefficient (Ψ), reflecting partner trait influence on focal individual phenotype.
To investigate the role of direct and indirect genetic effects and partner body mass on sociability.

Main Methods:

Utilized a laboratory population of the cockroach Blaptica dubia.
Estimated repeatability (R) of sociability over a 3-week period.
Measured repeatable influence (RI) and the interaction coefficient (Ψ) in dyadic trials and social networks.

Main Results:

Sociability showed moderate repeatability (R = 0.080) and marginal repeatable influence from partners (RI = 0.053).
The interaction coefficient (Ψ) was non-zero and sex-specific: males preferred larger partners (Ψmale = -0.129), females preferred smaller partners (Ψfemale = 0.071).
Individual sociability was consistent across different social contexts.

Conclusions:

Direct and indirect genetic effects appear to have limited influence on cockroach sociability.
Heritable effects of partner body mass may be a significant driver of social behavior evolution.
Sex-specific interaction coefficients suggest potential for sexual conflict and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in social behavior.