Data from: Investigating movement in the laboratory: dispersal apparatus designs and the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum

The natural dispersal of Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) has been emulated
in the laboratory for more than 50 years, using a simple dispersal apparatus. This has typically comprised
of a starting container (initial resource or patch) connected by tubing, which contains thread
for the animals to climb into a tube and hence to an end container. That is, beetles move to a new
viable resource or patch from an inter-patch zone or non-viable habitat. We modified this basic
apparatus design to test the effect of tubing length and tubing insertion angle on the dispersal rate
and proportion of successful dispersers. We expected that the proportion of successful dispersers
would be repeatable within each apparatus design, and that increasing tubing length and steepness of
the insertion angle would reduce dispersal rate and success across apparatus designs. Dispersal
increased linearly through time, similarly so for both males and females. The design with the most
vertical tubing insertion angle had a lower proportion of successful dispersers. Tubing length also
had a negative relationship with dispersal success (as judged by insects reaching the end container),
but a significant reduction in dispersal success was only apparent between the shortest and longest
tubing between containers. We suggest that locating and climbing the vertical section of string before
they can enter the tubing between containers restricts dispersal and that at higher densities, insects
exhibit greater inclination to climb. This type of apparatus has flexible design tolerances and further
potential to study the dispersal of other small insect species that primarily use pedestrian locomotion.