Geographic and genetic variation in death-feigning behavior in the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum

Five recently collected wild strains of the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, from Spain, Japan, and the United States were tested for phenotypic differences in the proclivity toward death feigning and in the duration of feints. Subsequently, the genetic basis for the observed geographic differences was established by within-strain and between-strain reciprocal crosses of the two most divergent strains. The results indicate that simple additive genetic factors are involved in the transmission of this behavior, with no detectable differences between sexes or evidence of maternal effects.