Social context, but not individual personality, alters immigrant viability in a spider with mixed social structure

Immigrant viability is a major determinant of the realized rate of gene flow across populations. For social organisms, the social context in which immigrants disperse across contrasting environments may have important implications for their viability post dispersal. Here, we use social spiders whose individual personalities as well as group personality compositions vary across sites to test whether the strength of selection against immigrants (i.e. mortality rates) differs depending on whether spiders are transplanted (1) as individuals and remain alone, (2) join pre-existing colonies at their new non-native environment, or (3) move with their native group. We also tested for an effect of individual personality on survival. We found that social context, and not individual personality, affects individual survival in foreign environments with contrasting resource levels. Individuals that were transplanted with their native groups suffered higher mortality rates compared to individuals tra...