Female-Biased Sex Ratios Increase Colony Survival and Reproductive Output in the Spider Anelosimus studiosus.

Negative frequency-dependent selection acting on the sexes is hypothesized to drive populations toward a balanced sex ratio. However, numerous examples of female-biased sex ratios pepper the arthropods. Theoretical examinations have proposed that female-biased populations or groups can have higher chances of surviving and propagating that may be advantageous.

Genomic tools for behavioural ecologists to understand repeatable individual differences in behaviour.

Behaviour is a key interface between an animal's genome and its environment. Repeatable individual differences in behaviour have been extensively documented in animals, but the molecular underpinnings of behavioural variation among individuals within natural populations remain largely unknown. Here, we offer a critical review of when molecular techniques may yield new insights, and we provide specific guidance on how and whether the latest tools available are appropriate given different resources, system and organismal constraints, and experimental designs.

Activity trends and movement distances in the Arizona bark scorpion (Scorpiones: Buthidae).

The bark scorpion, Centruroides sculpturatus Ewing, is a nocturnal, cryptic, nonburrowing, mobile species that is common in urban landscapes spanning the desert southwest. Bark scorpions are often found in dense localized populations in cities, but the question of whether this is because the species is metabolically movement limited or choose to aggregate has not been addressed. Field observations lead us to believe that the scorpions move very little.

Exploration of refuge preference in the Arizona bark scorpion (Scorpiones: Buthidae).

The ongoing difficulty in understanding how Centruroides sculpturatus (Ewing) uses the built environment has prompted this study in exploring refuge choices in a school environment and in laboratory behavioral assays. Radio telemetry tags were used at an urban site heavily populated with C. sculpturatus to track scorpions for a period of 21 d from 1 to 21 August 2013.

Behavioural syndromes and social insects: personality at multiple levels.

Animal personalities or behavioural syndromes are consistent and/or correlated behaviours across two or more situations within a population. Social insect biologists have measured consistent individual variation in behaviour within and across colonies for decades. The goal of this review is to illustrate the ways in which both the study of social insects and of behavioural syndromes has overlapped, and to highlight ways in which both fields can move forward through the synergy of knowledge from each.

Group size and its effects on collective organization.

Many insects and arthropods live in colonies or aggregations of varying size. Group size may affect collective organization either because the same individual behavior has different consequences when displayed in a larger group or because larger groups are subject to different constraints and selection pressures than smaller groups. In eusocial colonies, group size may have similar effects on colony traits as body size has on organismal traits.