Data from: The legacy effects of keystone individuals on collective behavior scale to how long they remain within a group

The collective behaviour of social groups is often strongly influenced by one or few individuals, termed here ‘keystone individuals’. We examined whether the influence of keystone individuals on collective behaviour lingers after their departure and whether these lingering effects scale with their tenure in the group. In the social spider, Stegodyphus dumicola, colonies' boldest individuals wield a disproportionately large influence over colony behaviour. We experimentally manipulated keystones' tenure in laboratory-housed colonies and tracked their legacy effects on collective prey capture following their removal. We found that bolder keystones caused more aggressive collective foraging behaviour and catalysed greater inter-individual variation in boldness within their colonies. The longer keystones remained in a colony, the longer both of these effects lingered after their departure. Our data demonstrate that, long after their disappearance, keystones have large and lasting effects on social dynamics at both the individual and colony levels.群居群体的集体行为往往受单个或少数个体的强烈影响，本文将这类个体称为「关键个体（keystone individuals）」。本研究旨在探究：关键个体对集体行为的影响是否会在其离开群体后持续存在，以及这类持续效应是否随其在群体中的停留时长而变化。在德氏肥蛛（Stegodyphus dumicola）的群居类群中，群体内最大胆的个体对群体行为拥有不成比例的巨大影响力。我们通过实验操控了实验室饲养群体中关键个体的停留时长，并在其被移除后，追踪了它们对集体猎物捕获行为的遗留效应。研究结果显示，更大胆的关键个体能够引发更为激进的集体觅食行为，并推动其所在群体内个体间大胆程度的差异进一步扩大。关键个体在群体中停留的时间越长，其离开后这两类效应的持续时长也就越长。本研究的数据表明，即便在关键个体消失许久之后，它们仍会对个体与群体两个层面的社会动态产生显著且持久的影响。