Adult insect personality in the wild -- Calopteryx splendens as a model
for field studies
Abstract
Animal personality has received increasing interest and acknowledgement
within ecological research over the past two decades. However, some
areas are still poorly studied and need to be developed. For instance,
field studies focused on invertebrates are currently highly
underrepresented in the literature. More studies including a wider
variety of traits measured and species tested is needed to improve our
understanding of trait-correlation patterns and generalities. We studied
nine behavioural traits, in the damselfly Calopteryx splendens, from an
array of three experiments: (i) courtship, (ii) aggressiveness and (iii)
boldness, and calculated their repeatability. The behaviours were
measured twice, in two different contexts: (i) undisturbed territory and
(ii) partially deteriorated territory. All behavioural traits measured,
except for two, were repeatable across the two contexts. This work
demonstrates, for the first time, the presence of within population
personality differences in an adult damselfly in the wild. We further
propose Calopteryx splendens as a promising model species for testing
personality in the wild under highly controlled environmental
conditions.