Abstract
Animal personality, defined as consistent differences between individuals in behavior, has been the subject of hundreds if not thousands of papers. However, little work explores the fitness consequences of variation in behavior within individuals, or intraindividual variability (IIV). We probe the effects of behavioral IIV on predator-prey interaction outcomes in beach-dwelling jumping spiders (Terralonus californicus). Prior studies have found that spiders with higher body condition (body mass relative to size) behave more variably. Thus, we hypothesized that jumping spider activity level IIV would relate positively to foraging performance. To address this, we tested for associations between activity IIV, average activity level, and two measures of foraging success in laboratory mesocosms: change in spider mass and the number of prey killed. Activity IIV positively correlated with the mass that spiders gained from prey, but not with the number of prey killed. This suggests that spiders with high IIV consumed a greater proportion of their prey or used less energy. Interestingly, average activity level (personality) predicted neither metric of foraging success, indicating that behavioral IIV can predict metrics of success that personality does not. Therefore, our findings suggest that IIV should be considered alongside personality in studies of predator-prey interactions.
Highlights
Predictor variable Whole model Activity level intraindividual variability (IIV) Average activity level Prosoma width Whole model Activity level IIV Average activity level Prosoma width
To screen for potential collinearity in our models we tested for correlations between activity level IIV, average activity level, and prosoma width
To probe how behavioral inconsistency (IIV) relates to predator-prey interactions, we tested whether jumping spider activity level IIV was related to low[20] or high[31] predator mass gain and predator-prey interaction outcome
Summary
Predictor variable Whole model Activity level IIV Average activity level Prosoma width Whole model Activity level IIV Average activity level Prosoma width. We tested whether behavioral inconsistency (IIV), alongside average behavior (personality) and body size, predicts the outcome of predator-prey interactions between the beach jumping spider, Terralonus californicus (Araneae, Salticidae), and the beach fly, Fucellia rufitibia. We chose these species, because we know that T. californicus eats F. rufitibia based on extensive feeding trials and carbon isotope analyses (McLaughlin & Chism, unpublished data), and because spiders are one of the most voracious predator groups on earth, consuming 400–800 million tons of prey a year, rivaling humans and whales[29]. We evaluated the ability of spiders’ behavioral variability (IIV) to predict the outcome of this predator-prey interaction, as to clarify the ecological consequences of intraspecific behavioral variation in T. californicus
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