Meeting Abstract
Behavioral syndromes, or “animal personalities,” are correlations between one or more behavioral traits in a population. Although many studies have demonstrated the presence of behavioral syndromes in a variety of species, relatively few have examined the development of a behavioral syndrome. We measured boldness, exploration, and sociability in house crickets at different stages in development to determine a) whether there is a behavioral syndrome linking two or more of these traits in this species and b) if so, whether this syndrome varies across ontogeny. We found a behavioral syndrome linking boldness and exploration in both male and female house crickets; that is, bolder crickets were also more exploratory. However, we found this correlation only in subadult and adult crickets, and NOT in juvenile crickets. Our results suggest that a boldness-exploration behavioral syndrome emerges later in development in house crickets.
