Investigating the role of non-helpers in group living thrips

Behavioural variation among individuals is a hallmark of cooperative societies, which commonly contain breeders and non-breeders, helpers and non-helpers. In some cases, labour is divided, with non-breeders “helping”. Conversely, in some societies, subordinate non-breeders may not help. These individuals may be (i) an insurance workforce ensuring continuity of help for breeders when other helpers are lost, (ii) conserving energy while waiting to breed themselves, or (iii) simply of too poor physiological quality either to help or breed. In the Australian Outback, Acacia thrips Dunatothrips aneurae (Thysanoptera) glue Acacia phyllodes into “domiciles” using silk-like secretions, either alone or cooperatively. Domicile maintenance is important for humidity, so repair can be interpreted as helping. I found that not all females helped to repair damage; some repaired partially or not at all (\"non-helpers\"). At the same time, some co-foundresses are non- or partially reproductive (\"non-breede..., Lab and field studies were conducted between January and October 2013, at a large patch of Acacia aneura, the host plant for D. aneurae, at the Bald Hills paddock (S 30° 57′ 39′; E 141° 42′ 18′′) near the UNSW Arid Zone Research Station, Fowlers Gap near Broken Hill, NSW, Australia (see Gilbert and Simpson 2013, Biol. J. Linn. Soc.). D. aneurae domiciles were identified and either collected or marked using coloured tape. I collected domiciles by hand and placed them into ziplock bags inside a cool box, moving them to a laboratory at room temperature within 12 h, and maintained them using protocols described in Gilbert & Simpson (2013). I examined the domiciles under a dissecting microscope. 
Are reproduction and domicile repair divided among foundresses? In domiciles containing two or more females, I made a small tear in the wall (roughly 20% of the silk area), folded back the silk, and observed repair behaviour (defined as stretching strands of \"silk\" singly between phyllode surfac..., , # Investigating the role of non-helpers in group living thrips

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zmp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zmp)

This dataset contains 4 data files in CSV format and 1 file of R code in Rmarkdown format. 

### Data

Note that in some cases these data files include individuals involved in studies unrelated to the current paper. These individuals are excluded from the code, with appropriate explanation.

Each data file corresponds to a different part of the linked paper, as follows:

1. Are reproduction and domicile repair divided among foundresses?
* gilbert_2024_jae_dissection_data - fig 3 - dis.csv
2. Are non-helping foundresses an insurance workforce for breeders?
* gilbert_2024_jae_sequential_removal_lab - figs 4 and 5 - xlab.csv
3. Are non-helping foundresses waiting to breed themselves?
* gilbert_2024_jae_raw_data_removal_repair_tr.csv
* gilbert_2024_jae_removal_ovaries.csv
* Also uses some data from gilbert_2024_jae_dissection_data...