Is death–feigning adaptive? Heritable variation in fitness difference of death–feigning behaviour

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 271; no. 1554; pp. 2293 - 2296
• Main Authors: Miyatake, T., Katayama, K., Takeda, Y., Nakashima, A., Sugita, A., Mizumoto, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society 07.11.2004
• Subjects: Adaptation, Biological - physiology; Animals; Anti-Predator Behaviour; Artificial Selection; Beetles; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Coleoptera; Death; Deception; Defence; Ecological competition; Female; Female animals; Genetic inheritance; Hasarius adansoni; Immobility; Insect behavior; Male; Natural selection; Observation; Predation; Predators; Predatory Behavior - physiology; Quantitative Genetics; Salticidae; Selection, Genetic; Spiders; Spiders - physiology; Tenebrionidae; Thanatosis; Tribolium - physiology; Tribolium castaneum

The adaptation of death-feigning (thanatosis), a subject that has been overlooked in evolutionary biology, was inferred in a model prey-and-predator system. We studied phenotypic variation among individuals, fitness differences, and the inheritance of death-feigning behaviour in the red flour beetle...