Foraging actively can be advantageous in heterogeneous environments

A wealth of evidence indicates that behavioral polymorphism is widespread in nature. While some organisms search for food by moving almost continuously throughout their environment, other organisms forage in one place for long periods of time. Although such a dichotomy has been previously documented in Drosophila melanogaster, the question remains which foraging strategy is better suited to maximize energy intake in a particular environment. We designed an experiment to evaluate whether the configuration of food in the environment alters the foraging behavior of two larval strains. Assuming that one of the strains acquires more food than the other in a given environment, we examined whether variation in growth occurred between them. Our results indicate that foraging behavior is a plastic trait, shaped by the configuration of food in the environment. Regardless of the foraging strategy, we found that larvae generally increased their locomotion when food was patchy rather than clumped. E..., , # Foraging actively can be advantageous in heterogeneous environments

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9spr](10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9spr)

## GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: Data from: Foraging actively can be advantageous in heterogeneous environments
2. Author Information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Dylan J. Padilla Perez
Institution: Yale University
Address: Peabody Museum
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

## DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

1. Description of dataset

The data described below correspond to the results of experiments conducted to investigate the effects of the distribution of food in the environment on the foraging behavior and life-history traits of *Drosophila melanogaster*.

1. File List:
File 1 Name: data.csv
File 1 Description: growth rate dataset.

File 2 Name: Results_by_ind.csv
File 2 Description: Output of the video-tracking software (AnimalTA).

File 3 Name: movement.csv
File ...,