Please cite this article in press as: Faragó, T Behaviour (2010), doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.201 A number of species are considered to use functionally referential signals such as alarm calls or foodrelated vocalizations. However, this particular function of communicative interaction has not previously been found in canids. We provide the first experimental indication that domestic dogs, Canis famil...

Parental protection of eggs represents one of the most basic forms of parental care. Theory suggests that even such basic parental investment represents a trade-off between current offspring survival and future reproductive success. However, few studies have quantified the underlying costs and benefits of parental care for marked individuals across an entire lifetime. I marked and followed 370 ...

Intertidal mudflats are highly productive ecosystems that impose severe environmental challenges on their occupants due to tidal oscillations and extreme shifts in habitat conditions. Reproduction on mudflats requires protection of developing eggs from thermal and salinity extremes, O(2) shortage, dislodgement by currents, siltation and predation. Mudskippers are air-breathing, amphibious fishe...

Blue crabs mate immediately after the female's final moult. We tested the influence of female moult stage, sex ratio and male size on the pre-mating behaviour of both sexes, and the ability of males to pair with females and aggressively compete for access to females. We observed crabs in field enclosures and surveyed pre-copulatory mate-guarding patterns in the field. Female behaviour changed a...

This study was conducted to detect binary trait loci (BTLs) that inßuence guarding behavior of individual honey bees, Apis mellifera L., and to locate genetic markers that are associated with these BTLs on genetic maps derived from guard bees from two reciprocal backcross colonies. Samples of guards and control bees were taken from two backcross colonies derived from a defensive colonyandagentl...

Some parasites have an ability to fabricate the behavior of their host and impel the host to guard parasites' offspring, which is popularly called as bodyguard manipulation. Psalis pennatula larva parasitized by a braconid parasitoid wasp Microplitis pennatula exhibits some behavioral changes including the guarding of the parasitoid pupa from its natural enemies. We hypothesized that these beha...