Energy metabolism and personality in wild-caught fall field crickets

Publication date: Available online 19 November 2018Source: Physiology & BehaviorAuthor(s): Vincent Careau, Pierre Philippe Beauchamp, Sabine Bouchard, Julie Morand-FerronAbstractStandard metabolic rate (SMR) is known to be highly variable across levels of biological organisation (e.g., species, populations, among individuals, within individuals). Some of the variation in SMR can be attributed to factors such as diet, temperature, and body mass, yet much of the residual variation in SMR remains unexplained. Intuitively, we can expect SMR to co-vary with “personality”, but the rapidly accumulating empirical evidence on this topic remains equivocal. The goal of this study was to test for a link between SMR and a behavioural syndrome at the among-individual level in wild-caught fall field crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus). Paired measurements of SMR and two behavioural traits were repeatedly taken over a two-month period, thus allowing to estimate the among-individual correlations (rind) separately from the residual (within-individual) correlations. The two behavioural traits (latency to exit a refuge in a novel environment and “freezing” time following a stressful stimulus) were significantly and moderately repeatable and were found to be part of a syndrome, as indicated by a strong and positive among-individual correlation (rind = 0.82 ± 0.27). Yet, only latency to exit was significantly and positively correlated with SMR (rind = 0.45 ± 0.21), suggesti...
Source: Physiology and Behavior - Category: Physiology Source Type: research