Data for: Aphids increase their rate of survival on emergent aquatic plants through niche construction

Flooding or rain is a threat to many insects in nature, and herbivorous invertebrates whose hosts are emergent aquatic plants. They may thus have developed particular adaptations to enable them to withstand the flooding that is a feature of emergent plants’ environment. The aphid Hyalopterus pruni (Hemiptera: Aphididae) modifies the physical and chemical conditions of its habitat by periodically spreading wax around itself with its hind legs. This behaviour constitutes a form of niche construction. We hypothesized that the aphid decreases its risk of death of own or around other individuals when submerged in water by spreading wax powder secreted from its body onto the leaves of its host plant Phragmites australis. We compared the hydrophobicity of waxed and normal leaf surfaces. Next, we compared the survival rates of wax-powdering and non-wax-powdering aphids under submerged and rainy conditions in the laboratory and in the field. Finally, we examined whether the aphids’ wax powdering..., , , # Data for:

**data file name ‘Effects_of_submersion_experience.csv’**

Column headers with explanations

* ColonyID: ID of aphid colonies used in the experiment.
* Treatment: The treatment of the test trials (categorical, submersion or non-submersion)
* number of aphids: Number of aphids comprising the colony
* 5min,10min,15min, 20min, 25min, 30min: Number of aphids that have carried out wax-powdering behaviour by that time

**data file name 'amount_of_air_retained_on_leaf_.csv'**

Column headers with explanations

* Condition: The experimental conditions (categorical, non-wax or wax)
* bobble (mm3): The sizes of bubbles around aphids

**data file name 'Angle.csv'**

Column headers with explanations

* Condition: The experimental conditions (categorical, non-wax or wax)
* bobble (mm3): The sizes of bubbles around aphids

**data file name VideoS1_Wax_powdering_behaviour_of_Hyalopterus_pruni_on_Phragmites_australis_leaf.mp4**

The wax-powdering behavior of *Hyal...