@article{SchilcherHilsmannRauscheretal.2021,
  author    = {Schilcher, Felix and Hilsmann, Lioba and Rauscher, Lisa and Değirmenci, Laura and Krischke, Markus and Krischke, Beate and Ankenbrand, Markus and Rutschmann, Benjamin and Mueller, Martin J. and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and Scheiner, Ricarda},
  title     = {In vitro rearing changes social task performance and physiology in honeybees},
  series = {Insects},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {Insects},
  number    = {1},
  issn      = {2075-4450},
  doi       = {10.3390/insects13010004},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252305},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {In vitro rearing of honeybee larvae is an established method that enables exact control and monitoring of developmental factors and allows controlled application of pesticides or pathogens. However, only a few studies have investigated how the rearing method itself affects the behavior of the resulting adult honeybees. We raised honeybees in vitro according to a standardized protocol: marking the emerging honeybees individually and inserting them into established colonies. Subsequently, we investigated the behavioral performance of nurse bees and foragers and quantified the physiological factors underlying the social organization. Adult honeybees raised in vitro differed from naturally reared honeybees in their probability of performing social tasks. Further, in vitro-reared bees foraged for a shorter duration in their life and performed fewer foraging trips. Nursing behavior appeared to be unaffected by rearing condition. Weight was also unaffected by rearing condition. Interestingly, juvenile hormone titers, which normally increase strongly around the time when a honeybee becomes a forager, were significantly lower in three- and four-week-old in vitro bees. The effects of the rearing environment on individual sucrose responsiveness and lipid levels were rather minor. These data suggest that larval rearing conditions can affect the task performance and physiology of adult bees despite equal weight, pointing to an important role of the colony environment for these factors. Our observations of behavior and metabolic pathways offer important novel insight into how the rearing environment affects adult honeybees.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Lapuente2021,
  author    = {Lapuente, Juan M.},
  title     = {The Chimpanzees of the Como{\´e} National Park, Ivory Coast. Status, distribution, ecology and behavior},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-22318},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-223180},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Although wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have been studied intensely for more than 50 years, there are still many aspects of their ecology and behavior that are not well understood. Every time that a new population of chimpanzees has been studied, new behaviors and unknown aspects of their ecology have been discovered. All this accumulated knowledge is helping us to piece together a model of how could last human and chimpanzee common ancestors have lived and behaved between seven and five million years ago. Como{\´e} chimpanzees had never been studied in depth, until we started our research in October 2014, only a few censuses had been realized. The last surveys prior our work, stated that the population was so decimated that was probably functionally extinct. When we started this research, we had to begin with a new intensive survey, using new methods, to ascertain the real status and distribution of the chimpanzees living in Como{\´e} National Park (CNP). During the last five years, we have realized a deep study aiming to know more about their ecology and behavior. We combined transects and reconnaissance marches (recces) with the use of camera traps, for the first time in CNP, obtaining a wealth of data that is not fully comprised in this dissertation. With this research, we determined that there is a sustainable continuous population of Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in CNP and the adjacent area of Mont Tingui, to the West, with a minimum of 127 weaned chimpanzees living in our main 900 km2 study area, SW of CNP. We found that this population is formed by a minimum of eight different chimpanzee communities, of which we studied seven, four of them more in detail. These chimpanzees spent much more time in the forest than in the savanna habitats. We also found that Como{\´e} chimpanzees consumed at least 58 different food items in their dit, which they obtained both from forest and savanna habitats. Another finding was that insectivory had an important role in their diet, with at least four species of ants, three of termites and some beetle larvae. These chimpanzees also hunted at least three species of monkeys and maybe rodents and duikers and occasionally consumed the big land snails of genus Achatina. We found that, during the fruit scarcity period in the late rainy season, they intensely consumed the cambium of Ceiba pentandra, as fallback food, much more than the bark or cambium of any other tree species. Another interesting finding was that all the chimpanzees in the studied area realized this particular bark-peeling behavior and had been repeatedly peeling the trees of this species for years. This did not increase tree mortality and the damage caused to the trees was healed in two years, not reducing the growth, thus being a sustainable use of the trees. We found that Como{\´e} chimpanzees produced and used a great variety of tools, mainly from wooden materials, but also from stone and herbaceous vegetation. Their tool repertory included stick tools to dip for Dorylus burmeisteri ants, to fish for Camponotus and Crematogaster ants, to dip for honey, mainly from Meliponini stingless bees, but sometimes from honey bees (Apis mellifera). It also included the use of stick tools to fish termites of Macrotermes subhyalinus and Odontotermes majus (TFTs), to dip for water from tree holes and investigatory probes for multiple purposes. Additionally, these chimpanzees used leaf-sponges to drink from tree holes and to collect clayish water from salt-licks. They also used stones to hit the buttresses of trees during displays, the so called accumulative stone throwing behavior and probably used stones as hammers, to crack open hard-shelled Strichnos spinosa and Afraegle paniculata fruits and Achatina snails. The chimpanzees also used objects that are not generally accepted as animal tools, for being attached to the substrate, with different purposes: they drummed buttresses of trees with hands and/or feet to produce sound during male displays and they pounded open hard-shelled fruits, Achatina snails and Cubitermes termite mounds on stone or root anvils. We finally measured the stick tools and found significant differences between them suggesting that they were specialized tools made specifically for every purpose. We studied more in detail the differences between apparently similar tools, the honey dipping tools and the water dipping tools, often with brushes made at their tips to collect the fluids. These last tools were exclusive from Como{\´e} and have not been described at any other site. We found that total length, diameter and brush length were significantly different, suggesting that they were specialized tools. We concluded that Como{\´e} chimpanzees had a particular culture, different from those of other populations of Western chimpanzees across Africa. Efficient protection, further research and permanent presence of research teams are required to avoid that this unique population and its culture disappears by the poaching pressure and maybe by the collateral effects of climate change.},
  subject      = {Parc National de la Como{\´e}},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ScheinerEntlerBarronetal.2017,
  author    = {Scheiner, Ricarda and Entler, Brian V. and Barron, Andrew B. and Scholl, Christina and Thamm, Markus},
  title     = {The Effects of Fat Body Tyramine Level on Gustatory Responsiveness of Honeybees (Apis mellifera) Differ between Behavioral Castes},
  series = {Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience},
  volume    = {11},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience},
  number    = {55},
  doi       = {10.3389/fnsys.2017.00055},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-157874},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Division of labor is a hallmark of social insects. In the honeybee (Apis mellifera) each sterile female worker performs a series of social tasks. The most drastic changes in behavior occur when a nurse bee, who takes care of the brood and the queen in the hive, transitions to foraging behavior. Foragers provision the colony with pollen, nectar or water. Nurse bees and foragers differ in numerous behaviors, including responsiveness to gustatory stimuli. Differences in gustatory responsiveness, in turn, might be involved in regulating division of labor through differential sensory response thresholds. Biogenic amines are important modulators of behavior. Tyramine and octopamine have been shown to increase gustatory responsiveness in honeybees when injected into the thorax, thereby possibly triggering social organization. So far, most of the experiments investigating the role of amines on gustatory responsiveness have focused on the brain. The potential role of the fat body in regulating sensory responsiveness and division of labor has large been neglected. We here investigated the role of the fat body in modulating gustatory responsiveness through tyramine signaling in different social roles of honeybees. We quantified levels of tyramine, tyramine receptor gene expression and the effect of elevating fat body tyramine titers on gustatory responsiveness in both nurse bees and foragers. Our data suggest that elevating the tyramine titer in the fat body pharmacologically increases gustatory responsiveness in foragers, but not in nurse bees. This differential effect of tyramine on gustatory responsiveness correlates with a higher natural gustatory responsiveness of foragers, with a higher tyramine receptor (Amtar1) mRNA expression in fat bodies of foragers and with lower baseline tyramine titers in fat bodies of foragers compared to those of nurse bees. We suggest that differential tyramine signaling in the fat body has an important role in the plasticity of division of labor through changing gustatory responsiveness.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{AppelScholzMuelleretal.2015,
  author    = {Appel, Mirjam and Scholz, Claus-J{\"u}rgen and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Dittrich, Marcus and K{\"o}nig, Christian and Bockstaller, Marie and Oguz, Tuba and Khalili, Afshin and Antwi-Adjei, Emmanuel and Schauer, Tamas and Margulies, Carla and Tanimoto, Hiromu and Yarali, Ayse},
  title     = {Genome-Wide Association Analyses Point to Candidate Genes for Electric Shock Avoidance in Drosophila melanogaster},
  series = {PLoS ONE},
  volume    = {10},
  journal   = {PLoS ONE},
  number    = {5},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0126986},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-152006},
  pages     = {e0126986},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Electric shock is a common stimulus for nociception-research and the most widely used reinforcement in aversive associative learning experiments. Yet, nothing is known about the mechanisms it recruits at the periphery. To help fill this gap, we undertook a genome-wide association analysis using 38 inbred Drosophila melanogaster strains, which avoided shock to varying extents. We identified 514 genes whose expression levels and/or sequences covaried with shock avoidance scores. We independently scrutinized 14 of these genes using mutants, validating the effect of 7 of them on shock avoidance. This emphasizes the value of our candidate gene list as a guide for follow-up research. In addition, by integrating our association results with external protein-protein interaction data we obtained a shock avoidance- associated network of 38 genes. Both this network and the original candidate list contained a substantial number of genes that affect mechanosensory bristles, which are hairlike organs distributed across the fly's body. These results may point to a potential role for mechanosensory bristles in shock sensation. Thus, we not only provide a first list of candidate genes for shock avoidance, but also point to an interesting new hypothesis on nociceptive mechanisms.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{BaalbergenHelwerdaSchelfhorstetal.2014,
  author    = {Baalbergen, Els and Helwerda, Renate and Schelfhorst, Rense and Castillo Cajas, Ruth F. and van Moorsel, Coline H. M. and Kundrata, Robin and Welter-Schultes, Francisco W. and Giokas, Sinos and Schilthuizen, Menno},
  title     = {Predator-Prey Interactions between Shell-Boring Beetle Larvae and Rock-Dwelling Land Snails},
  series = {PLOS ONE},
  volume    = {9},
  journal   = {PLOS ONE},
  number    = {6},
  issn      = {1932-6203},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0100366},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115963},
  pages     = {e100366},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Drilus beetle larvae (Coleoptera: Elateridae) are specialized predators of land snails. Here, we describe various aspects of the predator-prey interactions between multiple Drilus species attacking multiple Albinaria (Gastropoda: Clausiliidae) species in Greece. We observe that Drilus species may be facultative or obligate Albinaria-specialists. We map geographically varying predation rates in Crete, where on average 24\% of empty shells carry fatal Drilus bore holes. We also provide first-hand observations and video-footage of prey entry and exit strategies of the Drilus larvae, and evaluate the potential mutual evolutionary impacts. We find limited evidence for an effect of shell features and snail behavioral traits on inter-and intraspecifically differing predation rates. We also find that Drilus predators adjust their predation behavior based on specific shell traits of the prey. In conclusion, we suggest that, with these baseline data, this interesting predator-prey system will be available for further, detailed more evolutionary ecology studies.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{BonteTravisDeClercqetal.2008,
  author    = {Bonte, Dries and Travis, Justin M. J. and De Clercq, Nele and Zwertvaegher, Ingrid and Lens, Luc},
  title     = {Thermal conditions during juvenile development affect adult dispersal in a spider},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-48691},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {Abstract: Understanding the causes and consequences of dispersal is a prerequisite for the effective management of natural populations. Rather than treating dispersal as a fixed trait, it should be considered a plastic process that responds to both genetic and environmental conditions. Here, we consider how the ambient temperature experienced by juvenile Erigone atra, a spider inhabiting crop habitat, influences adult dispersal. This species exhibits 2 distinct forms of dispersal, ballooning (long distance) and rappelling (short distance). Using a half-sib design we raised individuals under 4 different temperature regimes and quantified the spiders' propensity to balloon and to rappel. Additionally, as an indicator of investment in settlement, we determined the size of the webs build by the spiders following dispersal. The optimal temperature regimes for reproduction and overall dispersal investment were 20 °C and 25 °C. Propensity to perform short-distance movements was lowest at 15 °C, whereas for long-distance dispersal it was lowest at 30 °C. Plasticity in dispersal was in the direction predicted on the basis of the risks associated with seasonal changes in habitat availability; long-distance ballooning occurred more frequently under cooler, spring-like conditions and short-distance rappelling under warmer, summer-like conditions. Based on these findings, we conclude that thermal conditions during development provide juvenile spiders with information about the environmental conditions they are likely to encounter as adults and that this information influences the spider's dispersal strategy. Climate change may result in suboptimal adult dispersal behavior, with potentially deleterious population level consequences.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Berghoff2002,
  author    = {Berghoff, Stefanie M.},
  title     = {Sociobiology of the hypogaeic army ant Dorylus (Dichthadia) laevigatus Fr. Smith},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-5005},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2002},
  abstract  = {Originally renowned for their spectacular epigaeic raids, army ants have captured scientific attention for almost two centuries. They now belong to one of the best studied group of ants. However, most of our knowledge about army ants was derived from the study of the minority of specialized, epigaeicly active species. These species evolved probably rather recently from hypogaeic ancestors. The majority of army ant species still leads a hypogaeic life and is almost completely unknown in its entire sociobiology. It thus remained speculative, whether the assumed 'general' characteristics of army ants represent an adaptation to epigaeic activity or apply also to the majority of hypogaeic species. Based on the recent observation that the hypogaeic Asian army ant Dorylus (Dichthadia) laevigatus recruits predictably to palm oil baits, I developed and tested an oil-baiting method for the study of hypogaeic (army)ants. Prior to my study, nothing was known about the sociobiology of the assumed rare D. laevigatus. Throughout my work, I showed D. laevigatus to be very common and abundant in a wide range of habitats in West-Malaysia and on Borneo. Investigating its foraging behavior, I revealed D. laevigatus to differ from epigaeicly active species in several ways. Never demonstrated for any of the epigaeic species, D. laevigatus established stable trunk trail systems. Such a trail system contradicted the perception of army ant foraging, which was believed to be characterized by raids with constantly alternating trail directions. The trunk trail system further enabled a near omnipresence of D. laevigatus within its foraging area, which was also believed to be atypical for an army ant. Raids differed in structure and composition of participating workers from those of epigaeic species. Also, bulky food sources could be exploited over long periods of time. The foraging system of D. laevigatus resembled in several ways that of e.g. leaf-cutter and harvester ants. Likewise contrary to the assumptions, D. laevigatus had a wide food spectrum and showed only little effect on local arthropod communities, even falling itself prey to other ants. Strong aggressive behavior was observed only towards ant species with similar lifestyles, enabling me to provide the first detailed documentation of interspecific fights between two sympatric Dorylus species. Similar to foraging habits or ecological impact, nothing was known about colony size and composition, nesting habits, or worker polymorphism for D. laevigatus or any other hypogaeic Dorylus species prior to my work. By observing and eventually excavating a colony, I showed D. laevigatus to have a much smaller colony size and to lack the large sized workers of epigaeic Dorylus species. Similar to epigaeic Dorylinae, I showed D. laevigatus to have a non-phasic brood production, to emigrate rarely, and to alter its nest form along with habitat conditions. Detailed morphological and geographical descriptions give an impression of the Asian Dorylus species and are expected to aid other researchers in the difficult species identification. The genetic analysis of a male collected at a light trap demonstrated its relation to D. laevigatus. Confirming the male and queen associations, D. laevigatus is now one of five Dorylus species (out of a total of 61), for which all castes are known. In cooperation with D. Kistner, I provide a morphological and taxonomical description of nine Coleopteran beetles associated with D. laevigatus. Behavioral observations indicated the degree of their integration into the colony. The taxonomic position of the beetles further indicated that D. laevigatus emigrated from Africa to Asia, and was accompanied by the majority of associated beetles. The diversity of D. laevigatus guests, which included a number of unidentified mites, was rather low compared to that of epigaeic species. Overall, I demonstrated the developed baiting containers to effectively enable the study of hypogaeic ants. I showed several other hypogaeic ant species to be undersampled by other methods. Furthermore, the method enabled me to documented a second hypogaeic Dorylus species on Borneo. A detailed description of this species' morphology, ecology, and interactions with D. laevigatus is provided. My study indicated D. laevigatus to be an ecologically important species, able to influence soil structure and organisms of tropical regions in many ways. Relating the observed traits of D. laevigatus to epigaeicly active species, I conclude that our assumption of 'general' army ant behavior is erroneous in several aspects and needs to be changed. The oil-baiting method finally provides a tool enabling the location and study of hypogaeic (army)ant species. This opens a broad field for future studies on this cryptic but nonetheless important group of ants.},
  subject      = {Borneo},
  language  = {en}
}