Replacing bold individuals has a smaller impact on group performance than replacing shy individuals

Noa Pinter-Wollmana, Brian Mi and Jonathan N. Pruitt

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 3, 883-889

Abstract: Lay Summary Despite the high impact of keystone individuals, such as leaders, on group behavior, their identity appears to be immaterial. By repeatedly replacing the keystone individual in groups of social spiders, we show that it is sufficient to have a keystone individual to improve group performance when attacking prey but the keystone individual does not necessarily have to be a specific or familiar individual to serve its role.

Keywords: collective behavior; keystone individual; personality; social niche; Stegodyphus dumicola. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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