Triggers for behavioral cohesion in social groups

• Ano de defesa: 2023
• Autor(a) principal: Nunes, Lívia Fonseca
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Térmita - Comportamento; Insetos - Comportamento; Insetos - Populações; Comportamento Animal
• Link de acesso: https://locus.ufv.br//handle/123456789/31989; https://doi.org/10.47328/ufvbbt.2023.209

Collective behaviour is a widespread phenomenon in the animal world. In order to act collectively, individuals must exhibit cohesive behaviours which, in turn, imply multiple individuals performing similar or complementary behaviours. Despite the robust theory on mechanisms that govern collective behaviour, little is known about the factors that predispose individuals to converge their actions by exhibiting a cohesive behavioural atti- tude. Here we show that external stimuli can be one of these factors. To do so, we apply different types and intensities of external stimuli to laboratory groups of Constrictotermes cyphergaster termite individuals. Our results demonstrated that in all cases, behavioural cohesion among individuals was triggered by the stimulus insertion. We argue that be- havioural cohesion was attained by the independent response of individuals to external stimulation. The picture that emerges from our results is that although frequently re- lated to the intrinsic motivation of individuals to remain together, a ubiquitous trait in social organisms, behavioural cohesion can also be driven by external stimulation. Our results corroborate and add further evidence on the role of external factors in collective behaviour. Keywords: Collective behaviour. Behavioural coherence. External stimulus.