No evidence for quorum sensing during egg hatching in the cestode <em>Schistocephalus solidus</em>

Schistocephalus solidus is a parasitic cestode with a complex, multi-host life cycle. S. solidus reproduces in its terminal host either by exchanging gametes with similarly sized individuals or selfing. Fertilized eggs then pass through the feces of the host and hatch at the bottom of freshwater lakes. Previous work found that selfing greatly depresses egg hatching rates, presumably as a result of inbreeding depression. We predicted that S. solidus may have evolved quorum sensing (QS) during hatching as a mechanism to facilitate synchronized infection, thereby increasing the opportunity for outcrossing in its terminal host. We tested whether density-dependent hatch rates were present across three parasite populations, examining both outcrossed and selfed progeny. We predicted that if QS was present, it would be common across all populations, and that increasing egg density would result in higher hatching rates. We also expected that outcrossed eggs would hatch at higher rates than those..., , # No evidence for quorum sensing during egg hatching in the cestode *Schistocephalus solidus* Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.rbnzs7hqm](10.5061/dryad.rbnzs7hqm) ## Description of the data and file structure This dataset accompanies the manuscript \"No evidence for quorum sensing during egg hatching in the cestode *Schistocephalus solidus*,\" accepted at *PeerJ.* The zipped files are photos of *S. solidus* eggs taken at 40x, used to count the number of hatched and unhatched eggs. The raw count data is in the Excel spreadsheet, and the analysis is in the R script. ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * [https://github.com/EmilyKerns/SSolidusEggDensity](https://github.com/EmilyKerns/SSolidusEggDensity) ## File descriptions * Final_Density_analysis_RandomEffects.R * R script used to analyze the data. We tested whether egg solution volume is a valid proxy for egg density by examining its relationship with total egg counts across clutches. Volume strongl...,