Personality in Stomatopod Crustaceans

<p>Stomatopods, or mantis shrimp, are small, predatory crustaceans of tropical and subtropical waters. Mantis shrimp research has focused largely on their agonistic interactions and complex visual systems. Despite their broad behavioral repertoire, stomatopods have not yet been investigated for consistent behavioral differences at the individual level, referred to as animal personality. Fifteen individual <em>Neogonodactylus oerstedii</em> were tested in three scenarios designed to measure potential differences in behaviors: 1) exploration of a novel environment, 2) response to and recovery from a startling event, and 3) response to a novel object. Each individual went through the series of tests twice, with a 14-day interval, to test for consistency over time. Sixteen measured behavioral variables were found to be statistically significantly repeatable. Six of these variables were run through factor analysis and found to align with three factors: one representing exploration, and two representing boldness (foraging prior to startling event, and startle recovery). Overall, the findings suggest that these stomatopods do exhibit personality. Combining a study of exploration and boldness with possible differences in agonistic behaviors could give greater insight to the ecological significance of personality in mantis shrimp.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science - Biology

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biology

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Blenderman, Jillian Page

Contributors dc:contributor

• Daniel J. Bennett
• Jennifer Gumm
• Beatrice Clack

• mantis shrimp
• stomatopods
• personality
• boldness
• exploration
• crustaceans
• Behavior and Ethology
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/302

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1349