The adaptive function of waste management in a social spider mite

Effective waste management is fundamental to the success of social living, playing a key role in disease prevention and maintaining a habitable environment. However, experimental evidence for its adaptive significance remains limited, primarily due to the difficulties in manipulating defecation behaviour. The social spider mite Stigmaeopsis longus defecates cooperatively near nest entrances, guided by tactile and chemical cues. We experimentally altered the number and location of defecation sites using host plant extracts that mimic the chemical cues and examined the effects on reproduction and survival under different female densities. Centralised and increased defecation sites reduced egg survival in high-density nests, but not in low-density ones. Nevertheless, both densities exhibited increased nest extension, suggesting a compensatory response. When nest extension was physically prevented, egg survival declined even in low-density nests, confirming that nest extension mitigates the..., , # Data from: The adaptive function of waste management in a social spider mite

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.5tb2rbpgv](10.5061/dryad.5tb2rbpgv)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset was collected to investigate the adaptive function of defecation behaviour in the social spider mite *Stigmaeopsis longus*. Two experiments were conducted:

* **Table S1** contains data from **Experiment 1**, in which defecation was manipulated while allowing nest extension.
* **Table S2** contains data from **Experiment 2**, in which nest extension was blocked during defecation manipulation.
* **R_markdown_file.Rmd** provides the R script used for figure preparation and statistical analysis.
* **R_markdown_file.html** shows the output of the R script, using the datasets (Table S1 and Table S2) to generate the figures and conduct the analysis.

<br />

## Files and variables

### File: STable1.csv

**Description:** Data set in experiment 1: Defecation manipulation with nest extension...,