Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Sex differences in helping effort reveal the effect of future reproduction on cooperative behaviour in birds
The evolution of helping behaviour in species that breed cooperatively in family groups is typically attributed to kin selection alone. However, in many species, helpers go on to inherit breeding positions in their natal groups, but the extent to which this contributes to selection for helping is unclear as the future reproductive success of helpers is often unknown. To quantify the role of future reproduction in the evolution of helping, we compared the helping effort of female and male retained offspring across cooperative birds. The kin selected benefits of helping are equivalent between female and male helpers—th...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Downing, P. A., Griffin, A. S., Cornwallis, C. K. Tags: evolution Source Type: research

Unpredictable movement as an anti-predator strategy
In this study, we used human ‘predators’ participating in 3D virtual reality simulations to test how protean (i.e. unpredictable) variation in prey movement affects participants' ability to visually target them as they move (a key determinant of successful predation). We found that targeting accuracy was significantly predicted by prey movement path complexity, although, surprisingly, there was little evidence that high levels of unpredictability in the underlying movement rules equated directly to decreased predator performance. Instead, the specific movement rules differed in how they impacted on targeting ac...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Richardson, G., Dickinson, P., Burman, O. H. P., Pike, T. W. Tags: behaviour Source Type: research

Variation in individual temperature preferences, not behavioural fever, affects susceptibility to chytridiomycosis in amphibians
The ability of wildlife populations to mount rapid responses to novel pathogens will be critical for mitigating the impacts of disease outbreaks in a changing climate. Field studies have documented that amphibians preferring warmer temperatures are less likely to be infected with the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). However, it is unclear whether this phenomenon is driven by behavioural fever or natural variation in thermal preference. Here, we placed frogs in thermal gradients, tested for temperature preferences and measured Bd growth, prevalence, and the survival of infected animals. Although there wa...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Sauer, E. L., Fuller, R. C., Richards-Zawacki, C. L., Sonn, J., Sperry, J. H., Rohr, J. R. Tags: behaviour, ecology, health and disease and epidemiology Source Type: research

Mesoscale activity facilitates energy gain in a top predator
How animal movement decisions interact with the distribution of resources to shape individual performance is a key question in ecology. However, links between spatial and behavioural ecology and fitness consequences are poorly understood because the outcomes of individual resource selection decisions, such as energy intake, are rarely measured. In the open ocean, mesoscale features (approx. 10–100 km) such as fronts and eddies can aggregate prey and thereby drive the distribution of foraging vertebrates through bottom-up biophysical coupling. These productive features are known to attract predators, yet their role in...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Abrahms, B., Scales, K. L., Hazen, E. L., Bograd, S. J., Schick, R. S., Robinson, P. W., Costa, D. P. Tags: behaviour, ecology Source Type: research

Historical data for conservation: reconstructing range changes of Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in eastern China (1970-2016)
The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) has long suffered from intense exploitation driven by consumer demand for medicinal use and food. Effective conservation management is hampered by insufficient data on pangolin status and distribution. We integrated ecological niche modelling with long-term ecological records at the local scale (e.g. from local historical documents, grey and published literature and interviews) to estimate the magnitude of potential distribution change of the Chinese pangolin in eastern China (Fujian, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces) over time. Our results suggest that the range of the species decre...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Yang, L., Chen, M., Challender, D. W. S., Waterman, C., Zhang, C., Huo, Z., Liu, H., Luan, X. Tags: ecology Source Type: research

Facilitation costs and benefits function simultaneously on stress gradients for animals
This study is the first to experimentally show that both costs and benefits function simultaneously on stress gradients for animals. The proposed conceptual framework could guide future studies examining species interaction outcomes for both animals and plants in an increasingly stressed world. (Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Dangles, O., Herrera, M., Carpio, C., Lortie, C. J. Tags: ecology Source Type: research

Multiple biological mechanisms result in correlations between pre- and post-mating traits that differ among versus within individuals and genotypes
Reproductive traits involved in mate acquisition (pre-mating traits) are predicted to covary with those involved in fertilization success (post-mating traits). Variation in male quality may give rise to positive, and resource allocation trade-offs to negative, covariances between pre- and post-mating traits. Empirical studies have yielded mixed results. Progress is hampered as researchers often fail to appreciate that mentioned biological mechanisms can act simultaneously but at different hierarchical levels of biological variation: genetic correlations may, for example, be negative due to genetic trade-offs but environmen...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Tuni, C., Han, C. S., Dingemanse, N. J. Tags: behaviour, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Host-pathogen coevolution in the presence of predators: fluctuating selection and ecological feedbacks
Host–pathogen coevolution is central to shaping natural communities and is the focus of much experimental and theoretical study. For tractability, the vast majority of studies assume the host and pathogen interact in isolation, yet in reality, they will form one part of complex communities, with predation likely to be a particularly key interaction. Here, I present, to my knowledge, the first theoretical study to assess the impact of predation on the coevolution of costly host resistance and pathogen transmission. I show that fluctuating selection is most likely when predators selectively prey upon infected hosts, bu...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Best, A. Tags: theoretical biology, evolution, health and disease and epidemiology Source Type: research

Combined exposure to sublethal concentrations of an insecticide and a fungicide affect feeding, ovary development and longevity in a solitary bee
Pollinators in agroecosystems are often exposed to pesticide mixtures. Even at low concentrations, the effects of these mixtures on bee populations are difficult to predict due to potential synergistic interactions. In this paper, we orally exposed newly emerged females of the solitary bee Osmia bicornis to environmentally realistic levels of clothianidin (neonicotinoid insecticide) and propiconazole (fungicide), singly and in combination. The amount of feeding solution consumed was highest in bees exposed to the neonicotinoid, and lowest in bees exposed to the pesticide mixture. Ovary maturation and longevity of bees of t...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Sgolastra, F., Arnan, X., Cabbri, R., Isani, G., Medrzycki, P., Teper, D., Bosch, J. Tags: ecology, environmental science Source Type: research

Australian native mammals recognize and respond to alien predators: a meta-analysis
Prey naiveté is a failure to recognize novel predators and thought to cause exaggerated impacts of alien predators on native wildlife. Yet there is equivocal evidence in the literature for native prey naiveté towards aliens. To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis of Australian mammal responses to native and alien predators. Australia has the world's worst record of extinction and declines of native mammals, largely owing to two alien predators introduced more than 150 years ago: the feral cat, Felis catus, and European red fox, Vulpes vulpes. Analysis of 94 responses to predator cues shows that Austral...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Banks, P. B., Carthey, A. J. R., Bytheway, J. P. Tags: environmental science Global change and conservation Source Type: research

A new Palaeocene crocodylian from southern Argentina sheds light on the early history of caimanines
We report here a new caimanine from this same unit represented by a skull roof and partial braincase. Its phylogenetic relationships were explored in a cladistic analysis using standard characters and a morphogeometric two-dimensional configuration of the skull roof. The phylogenetic results were used for an event-based supermodel quantitative palaeobiogeographic analysis. The new species is recovered as the most basal member of the South American caimanines, and the Cretaceous North American lineage ‘Brachychampsa and related forms' as the most basal Caimaninae. The biogeographic results estimated north-central Nort...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Bona, P., Ezcurra, M. D., Barrios, F., Fernandez Blanco, M. V. Tags: palaeontology, taxonomy and systematics Evolution Source Type: research

Single neuron serotonin receptor subtype gene expression correlates with behaviour within and across three molluscan species
The marine mollusc, Pleurobranchaea californica varies daily in whether it swims and this correlates with whether serotonin (5-HT) enhances the strength of synapses made by the swim central pattern generator neuron, A1/C2. Another species, Tritonia diomedea, reliably swims and does not vary in serotonergic neuromodulation. A third species, Hermissenda crassicornis, never produces this behaviour and lacks the neuromodulation. We found that expression of particular 5-HT receptor subtype (5-HTR) genes in single neurons correlates with swimming. Orthologues to seven 5-HTR genes were identified from whole-brain transcriptomes. ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Tamvacakis, A. N., Senatore, A., Katz, P. S. Tags: neuroscience, behaviour, evolution Neuroscience and cognition Source Type: research

Disruption of skin microbiota contributes to salamander disease
Escalating occurrences of emerging infectious diseases underscore the importance of understanding microbiome–pathogen interactions. The amphibian cutaneous microbiome is widely studied for its potential to mitigate disease-mediated amphibian declines. Other microbial interactions in this system, however, have been largely neglected in the context of disease outbreaks. European fire salamanders have suffered dramatic population crashes as a result of the newly emerged Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). In this paper, we investigate microbial interactions on multiple fronts within this system. We show that wild,...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Bletz, M. C., Kelly, M., Sabino-Pinto, J., Bales, E., Van Praet, S., Bert, W., Boyen, F., Vences, M., Steinfartz, S., Pasmans, F., Martel, A. Tags: microbiology, ecology, health and disease and epidemiology Source Type: research

Increased fluctuation in a butterfly metapopulation leads to diploid males and decline of a hyperparasitoid
We examined this process empirically using a hyperparasitoid population inhabiting a spatially structured host population in a large fragmented landscape. Over four years of high host butterfly metapopulation fluctuation, diploid male production by the wasp increased, and effective population size declined precipitously. Our multitrophic spatially structured model shows that host population fluctuation can cause local extinctions of the hyperparasitoid because of the DMV. However, regionally it persists because spatial structure allows for efficient local genetic rescue via balancing selection for rare alleles carried by i...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Nair, A., Nonaka, E., van Nouhuys, S. Tags: genetics, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Environmental factors drive language density more in food-producing than in hunter-gatherer populations
Linguistic diversity is a key aspect of human population diversity and shapes much of our social and cognitive lives. To a considerable extent, the distribution of this diversity is driven by environmental factors such as climate or coast access. An unresolved question is whether the relevant factors have remained constant over time. Here, we address this question at a global scale. We approximate the difference between pre- versus post-Neolithic populations by the difference between modern hunter–gatherer versus food-producing populations. Using a novel geostatistical approach of estimating language and la...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - August 22, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Derungs, C., Köhl, M., Weibel, R., Bickel, B. Tags: ecology, environmental science, evolution Source Type: research