Introduction
Behavioural carryover of risk experiences is a valuable antipredator tactic. Prey use
their prior experiences to improve their response against a potential threat, and such
carryovers can occur across an organism’s life cycle or generations (Brass et al., 2020;
Garcia et al., 2019; West et al., 2018) . Similar to any costly antipredator behaviour,
behavioural carryovers of predation-risk experience may manifest based on the needs
and payoffs across different contexts that can vary the vulnerability of prey and
influence the trade-offs between different fitness components (Brown & Godin, 2023;
Wirsing et al., 2021) . However, the altered manifestations of behavioural carryovers
under ecologically relevant contexts remain understudied.
Sociality or group living can heavily influence the vulnerability of prey. While group
living has its costs (Ezenwa et al., 2016; Landry & Li, 2022), the benefits of being in a
group outweigh them in the face of predation (Rubenstein, 1978). A group can benefit
an individual through shared vigilance, social information transfer, confusion and
dilution effects (Lehtonen & Jaatinen, 2016) , decreasing the predation risk for an
individual in a group. Therefore, the expression of antipredator behaviour varies for an
individual from solitary to group settings. For example, individual sun skinks decrease
the time allotted to antipredator behavi our as the group size increases in high -risk
conditions (Downes & Hoefer, 2004) . Similarly, female Seychelles warblers make
alarm calls more frequently when they encounter a nest predator model in the absence
of their partners but will actively attack the model when with their partners
(Groenewoud et al., 2019) . Sociality not only alters individual antipredator behaviour
but also facilitates the emergence of collective antipredator strategies. These
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collective behaviours, such as mobbing predators (Cunha et al., 2017) or using
confusing collective movements to escape attacks (Couzin & Krause, 2003), arise
from the coordinated actions of group members.
With predation being a strong selective force, animals exhibit multiple traits to avoid
the risk of predation. However, the interplay and emergent outcomes of these various
traits remain poorly understood. We know very little about the influence of prior
predation-risk experience on an individual’s behaviour when it is in a group setting.
Since being in a group is an effective antipredator strategy, using prior predation -risk
experience to improve an individual’s response may be redundant in a group setting ,
or it may further add to the advantages by enhancing the group response. A recent
study on common cyprinid fish shows a starker difference in the activity of predator -
naive and experienced fish when solitary than in a group setting. The authors
suggested that this trend could be due to decreased predation risk, increased
competition for food, or other factors, all of which warrant further investigation (Wang
et al., 2019).
To investigate the behavioural consequences of predation-risk experiences in a group,
we use the pupal stage of Aedes aegypti as the model system . The pupal stage is
immature and does not feed; the absence of competition for food strikingly lowers the
cost of being in a group and reduces the confounding factors potentially affecting
behaviours of interest, such as activity. Consequently, we can gain a deep insight into
the functional roles of behaviours of interest against a background of fewer interacting
selection pressures. Therefore, the mosquito pupa is an excellent system for
understanding an individual’s antipredator behaviour in a group setting, as it eliminates
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the pos sibility of competition (for food and mates) confounding the expression of
antipredator behaviours.
Aedes aegypti larvae and pupae are usually found in pools under high density
(Ariyanto et al., 2020; Evans et al., 2023; Overgaard et al., 2017) . While these
immature stages do not exhibit coordinated movements, they are often aggregated
near the walls of the containers or at the surface, resting together as they respire
aerially. A dive by one larva or a pupa can make others dive in its vicinity, likely due to
the water disturbance caused by the initial movement. A few studies indicate that these
immature stages are aware of their conspecifics in water. For instance, Murthy et al.,
(2016) showed that Aedes aegypti larvae spend less time in the risky habitat when in
a group than alone. Similarly, Culex pipiens pupae dive deep away from an attack if
surrounded by fewer conspecifics, and the distance they flee decreases as the number
of conspecifics increases (Rodríguez-Prieto et al., 2006). These studies highlight how
the immature stages of mosquitoes can modulate their antipredator behaviour as per
the conspecific density.
We have already established a clear behavioural carryover of predation -risk
experience displayed by solitary pupa. When tested alone, pupae show an elaborate
behaviour pattern in the absence and presence of an imminent threat that depends on
their prior experience of predation risk (Rawat et al., 2024). Building on these findings,
our current study aims to investigate whether similar behavioural carryovers occur in
a group setting and compare it with our findings in solitary setting s. To explore the
expression of behavioural carryovers in a group setting, we reared larvae under
conditions with and without predation risk. We then tested individual larvae at the pupal
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stage in group settings, focusing on key traits such as diving, space use, and overall
activity levels in environments with and without an immediate threat. These traits were
selected based on their relevance to survival under threat and their previously
documented sensitivity to predation risk: diving is a key escape behaviour for mosquito
larvae and pupae (Awasthi et al., 2012; Baglan et al., 2017; Romoser and Lucas,
1999); across diverse taxa, individuals adjust their spatial use and activity patterns in
response to predation risk—for instance, reducing activity under immediate threat and
seeking safer microhabitats (Abramsky et al., 1996; Blanchard et al., 2018; Ross et
al., 2013). These behavioural traits were compared between risk -experienced and
naive pupae. Hence, we compared the behaviour of experienced and naive pupae
across two threat levels. Finally, we evaluated these results in light of our earlier
findings on behavioural c arryover in solitary settings to determine any consistencies
or divergences in the patterns of risk-related behavioural carryover.
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