Who Should I Trust? Social Information and Decision-Making Across Species

Heterospecific aggregation Austin

Supervisor: Professor Christine Miller

Project Summary(MPhil or PhD):

Animals rarely make decisions in isolation. By observing the behaviour of others, individuals can gain valuable information about food, predators, competitors, and the quality of their environment. Yet most studies of social information focus on interactions within a single species. This project will ask whether insects can also use information provided by other species, and how they decide when such information is reliable.

The project will investigate leaf-footed bugs that frequently aggregate together with other species on the same plants. Using observations and behavioural experiments in the laboratory and possibly in the field, the student will test whether individuals attend to the behaviour of heterospecifics and use it to guide their own decisions, such as where to feed, where to settle, and how to respond to potential threats. By comparing interactions among several closely related species with different ecological relationships, the project will explore when information from another species is useful, when it is misleading, and how insects learn which heterospecifics they should trust. 

Type of work:Professor Christine Miller

  • Professor Christine MillerThis work will typically take place in the laboratory in Cambridge.
  • Those who wish to include field studies would work in Austin, Texas in fields of cactus. Tolerance of very hot conditions and small spines getting stuck in your hands will be necessary. That said, for those who thrive under field conditions, this will add a valuable dimension to a PhD to see the organisms interacting in the field. 
  • Behavioural observation: recording courtship, mating, territorial interactions, and movement
  • Experimental studies: manipulating social and environmental conditions and measuring behavioural responses
  • Morphometrics: measuring insects to obtain information on their size and physical condition

    Importance of work:

The research will provide new insights into social information use, interspecific interactions, and the evolution of decision-making, while establishing leaf-footed bugs as a powerful system for studying how animals gather and evaluate information in complex ecological communities.

References:

Grueter, C., & Leadbeater, E. (2014). Insights from insects about adaptive social information use. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 29(3), 177-184

Miller CW, Fletcher RJ & Gillespie SR (2013). Conspecific and heterospecific cues override resource quality to influence offspring production. PLoS One 8 (7):e70268. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070268

Miller CW, Fletcher RJ, Anderson BD, & Nguyen LD (2012). Natal social environment influences habitat selection later in life. Animal Behaviour 83: 473-477.

Fletcher RJ & Miller CW (2008). The type and timing of social information alters offspring production. Biology Letters 4:482-485