Facial Patterns are a Conventional Signal of Agonistic Ability in Polistes exclamans Paper Wasps

Some animals minimize the high costs of aggressive conflict by using conventional signals of agonistic ability to assess rivals prior to interacting. Conventional signals are more controversial than other signals of agonistic ability because they lack an inherent physical or physiological link with their bearer’s agonistic ability. Here, we test whether the variable brown facial stripes in Polistes exclamans paper wasps function as a conventional signal. Polistes exclamans were given the option of challenging or avoiding a rival with an experimentally altered facial pattern. Our results show that rival assessment is based on the facial patterns of rivals, as well as an individual’s own size, facial patterns, and nesting strategy. Individuals with larger body size and larger brown facial stripes were more likely to challenge rivals than individuals with smaller body size and smaller brown facial stripes. In addition, large individuals were more likely to challenge rivals with large brown facial stripes than small individuals, while an individual’s own body size did not influence whether or not they challenged rivals with small brown stripes. Individuals who previously nested in multiple queen groups approached rivals more rapidly than individuals who previously nested alone, suggesting that social experience also plays a role in rival assessment. Finally, rivals with small facial stripes were challenged more rapidly than those with large facial stripes. These results demonstrate that P. exclamans facial patterns function as a signal used to minimize the cost of conflict. However, individuals do not make simple decisions based on their rival’s signal alone, as an individual’s own social experience and agonistic abilities also influence rival assessment decisions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87088/1/j.1439-0310.2011.01967.x.pd

Elizabeth Laird Tibbetts Correspondence

Entries include handwritten letters of book presentation with reference to his publisher on personal stationery from Stevens and a typed letter from Jacob of the Maine State Library on receipt of his book on the history of Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton, Maine

Developmental plasticity and the origin of novel communication systems: Individual recognition in Polistes wasps*

Although developmental plasticity facilitates the evolutionary origin of many traits, the role of plasticity in the origin of novel communication systems has received little attention. If plasticity mediates the origin of new communication systems, exposure to a novel environment will induce new traits that could function as signals or receiver responses. Here, we test whether plasticity facilitates the origin of individual recognition. We reared a species of paper wasp that naturally lacks individual recognition (Polistes metricus) with a relative that has facial patterns that signal individual identity (Polistes fuscatus). We found P. metricus reared with individual identity signals learned unique wasp faces significantly more accurately than P. metricus reared without individual identity signals. However, exposure to individual identity signals was not sufficient to induce individual recognition in social contexts. These results suggest that if variable facial patterns arose in P. metricus, wasps would immediately improve their ability learn variable facial patterns, thereby facilitating the origin of individual face recognition. Improved learning is an initial step toward individual recognition that would need to be refined by selection to produce an established signaling system. Developmental plasticity may be an underappreciated factor facilitating the evolutionary origin of novel recognition systems.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146923/1/evo13613_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146923/2/evo13613.pd

How Does Individual Recognition Evolve? Comparing Responses to Identity Information in P olistes Species with and Without Individual Recognition

A wide range of complex social behaviors are facilitated by the recognition of individual conspecifics. Individual recognition requires sufficient phenotypic variation to provide identity information as well as receivers that process and respond to identity information. Understanding how a complex trait such as individual recognition evolves requires that we consider how each component has evolved. Previous comparative studies have examined phenotypic variability in senders and receiver learning abilities, although little work has compared receiver responses to identity information among related species with and without individual recognition. Here, we compare responses to identity information in two Polistes paper wasps: P. fuscatus, which visually recognizes individuals, and P. metricus , which does not normally show evidence of individual recognition. Although the species differ in individual recognition, the results of this study show that receiver responses to experimentally manipulated identity information are surprisingly similar in both species. Receivers direct less aggression toward identifiable individuals than unidentifiable individuals. Therefore, the responses necessary for individual recognition may pre‐date its evolution in the P. fuscatus lineage. Additionally, our data demonstrate the apparent binary differences in a complex behavior between the two species, such as individual recognition, likely involve incremental differences along a number of axes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102093/1/eth12191.pd

Socially selected ornaments and fitness: Signals of fighting ability in paper wasps are positively associated with survival, reproductive success, and rank

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134447/1/evo12793_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134447/2/evo12793.pd

Trauma Prevalence and Desire for Trauma-Informed Coaching in Collegiate Sports: A Mixed Methods Study

This study investigated trauma prevalence amongst collegiate student-athletes and openness towards trauma-informed coaching practices among athletes and coaches at two small Division III colleges. Surveys gathered quantitative data from athletes (n = 91) and coaches (n =18) and qualitative data from athletes (n = 33). Quantitative results indicated that 52.7% of athletes experienced at least one potentially traumatic event during their lifetime. The most prevalent trauma was unwanted sexual contact. Additionally, 50.5% of athletes experienced sport-based harassment or abuse during their lifetime, with 21.7% of affected athletes experiencing said abuse in college sports. Athletes reported that 8 out of 10 trauma-informed coaching techniques included in the study were already implemented or desired for implementation at rates between 73.2–93.1% on their teams. Coaches also showed support for trauma-informed coaching, with 88.2% indicating they believed the practice was necessary in college athletics and a large majority of coaches agreeing or strongly agreeing with 8 out of 10 techniques. Qualitative results highlighted the variety of impacts that traumatic experiences have on athletes. The most reported themes were negative psychological and performance effects. Findings support the idea that trauma-informed coaching is necessary and desired in collegiate athletics

Heritable variation in colour patterns mediating individual recognition

Understanding the developmental and evolutionary processes that generate and maintain variation in natural populations remains a major challenge for modern biology. Populations of Polistes fuscatus paper wasps have highly variable colour patterns that mediate individual recognition. Previous experimental and comparative studies have provided evidence that colour pattern diversity is the result of selection for individuals to advertise their identity. Distinctive identity-signalling phenotypes facilitate recognition, which reduces aggression between familiar individuals in P. fuscatus wasps. Selection for identity signals may increase phenotypic diversity via two distinct modes of selection that have different effects on genetic diversity. Directional selection for increased plasticity would greatly increase phenotypic diversity but decrease genetic diversity at associated loci. Alternatively, heritable identity signals under balancing selection would maintain genetic diversity at associated loci. Here, we assess whether there is heritable variation underlying colour pattern diversity used for facial recognition in a wild population of P. fuscatus wasps. We find that colour patterns are heritable and not Mendelian, suggesting that multiple loci are involved. Additionally, patterns of genetic correlations among traits indicated that many of the loci underlying colour pattern variation are unlinked and independently segregating. Our results support a model where the benefits of being recognizable maintain genetic variation at multiple unlinked loci that code for phenotypic diversity used for recognition