@article {123070, title = {Fitness landscapes reveal context-dependent benefits of oviposition behavior.}, journal = {Evolution}, volume = {77}, year = {2023}, month = {2022 Dec 08}, pages = {550-561}, abstract = {

Resource choice behavior has enormous fitness consequences and can drive niche expansion. However, individual behavioral choices are often mediated by context, determined by past experience. Do such context-dependent behaviors reflect maladaptive variation or are they locally adaptive? Using Tribolium castaneum (the red flour beetle), we demonstrate that context-dependent oviposition behavior reflects distinct, context-specific local fitness peaks. We measured offspring fitness to generate fitness landscapes as a function of all possible oviposition behaviors (i.e., combinations of fecundity and resource preference) in a habitat containing optimal and suboptimal resource patches. We did this by experimentally manipulating egg allocation across patches, which allowed us to assess behaviors not typically observed in the laboratory. We found that females from different age and competition contexts exhibit distinct behaviors which optimize different fitness components, linked in a tradeoff. With prior exposure to strong competition and increasing age, females produce few but fast-developing offspring that are advantageous under high resource competition. In contrast, young na{\"\i}ve females produce significantly more (but slower developing) offspring, which is beneficial under weak competition. Systematically mapping complete context-dependent fitness landscapes is thus critical to infer behavioral optimality and offers predictive power in novel contexts.

}, issn = {1558-5646}, doi = {10.1093/evolut/qpac035}, author = {Ravi Kumar, Vrinda and Agavekar, Gaurav and Agashe, Deepa} } @article {53989, title = {Dimensions of ant diversity on a small tropical island}, journal = {INSECT CONSERVATION AND DIVERSITY}, volume = {12}, year = {2019}, month = {03/2019}, pages = {161-171}, abstract = {
  1. Recent appreciation of the multidimensional nature of biodiversity has prompted biologists to examine the taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic attributes of natural communities. Simultaneous consideration of such multiple diversity dimensions provides valuable insights into various community assembly processes.
  2. We studied the alpha and beta components of ant diversity on a simple island landscape dominated by adjacent but abiotically distinct evergreen (humid \& dense canopy) and littoral (dry \& sparse canopy) forest habitats. We sought to (i) describe and examine interrelationships of ant diversity dimensions, and (ii) identify potential processes structuring ant communities by comparing the diversity patterns of observed and randomly generated communities.
  3. We found that the drier littoral habitat had lower ant species richness and non-random community composition, but had similar functional diversity as evergreen forests. This result is in contrast with previous studies comparing intact and human-altered habitats that reported severe loss of ant functional diversity with reduced richness. In our study, the functional similarity between habitats was maintained because communities in littoral forests were functionally overdispersed than expected by chance. We suggest that competition and/or thermal tolerance of ants may drive overdispersion of littoral ant communities.
  4. At the small spatial scale of our island, phylogenetic diversity was a poor predictor of habitat differences despite significant phylogenetic signal in functional traits and non-random functional diversity patterns. Our work highlights the need for a broad range of studies comparing multidimensional diversity in adjacent habitats that would provide a baseline for interpreting community-level changes due to anthropogenic pressures.
}, doi = {10.1111/icad.12326}, author = {Agavekar, Gaurav and Agashe, Deepa and Economo, EP} } @article {24298, title = {Taxonomic overview of the hyperdiverse ant genus Tetramorium Mayr (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in India with descriptions and X-ray microtomography of two new species from the Andaman Islands.}, journal = {PeerJ}, volume = {5}, year = {2017}, month = {2017}, pages = {e3800}, abstract = {

With 600 described species, the ant genus Tetramorium represents one of the most species-rich ant radiations. However, much work remains to fully document the hyperdiversity of this remarkable group. Tetramorium, while globally distributed, is thought to have originated in the Afrotropics and is particularly diverse in the Old World. Here, we focus attention on the Tetramorium fauna of India, a region of high biodiversity value and interest for conservation. We overview Tetramorium diversity in India by providing a species list, accounts of all species groups present, an illustrated identification key to Indian Tetramorium species groups and notes on the Indian Tetramorium fauna. Further, we describe two new species, Tetramorium krishnani sp. n. and Tetramorium jarawa sp. n. from the Andaman Islands archipelago and embed them into currently recognized Tetramorium tonganum and Tetramorium inglebyi species groups. We also provide illustrated species level keys for these groups. Along with detailed species descriptions and high-resolution montage images of types, we provide 3D cybertypes of the new species derived from X-ray micro-computed tomography.

}, issn = {2167-8359}, doi = {10.7717/peerj.3800}, author = {Agavekar, Gaurav and Hita Garcia, Francisco and Economo, Evan P} }