WaterStriders: Water Striders
Description
Mating activity for water striders
Format
A dataset with 10 observations on the following 3 variables.
AggressiveMale Hyper-aggressive male in group?
No or Yes
FemalesHiding Proportion of time the
female water striders were in hiding
MatingActivity Measure of mean mating activity
(higher numbers meaning more mating)
Source
Sih, A. and Watters, J., "The mix matters: behavioural types and
group dynamics in water striders," Behaviour, 2005; 142(9-10): 1423.Details
Water striders are common bugs that skate across the surface of water. Water
striders have different personalities and some of the males are
hyper-aggressive, meaning they jump on and wrestle with any other water
strider near them. Individually, because hyper-aggressive males are much
more active, they tend to have better mating success than more inactive
striders. This study examined the effect they have on a group. Four males
and three females were put in each of ten pools of water. Half of the groups
had a hyper-aggressive male as one of the males and half did not. The
proportion of time females are in hiding was measured for each of the 10
groups, and a measure of mean mating activity was also measured with higher
numbers meaning more mating.