Data from: Be meek or be bold? A colony-level behavioural syndrome in ants

Consistent individual variation in animal behaviour is nearly ubiquitous and has important ecological and evolutionary implications. Behaviour has been proposed to be the result of independent behavioural categories, or axes, which have broadly been used to describe both human and non-human animal behaviour. Additionally, behavioural syndromes, or correlated suites of behaviours, are often described by testing for variation in traits across commonly described axes (e.g. classical behavioural syndromes), independent of whether this variation is ecologically relevant to the focal species. Here, we use a variety of ecologically relevant behaviours to test for a colony level behavioural syndrome in rock ants (Temnothorax rugatulus). Specifically, we combine field and lab assays to measure foraging effort, how colonies respond to different types of resources, activity level, response to threat, and aggression level. We find evidence for a colony level syndrome that suggests colonies consistently differ in coping style – some are more risk-prone, whereas others are more risk-adverse. Additionally, by collecting data across the North American range of this species, we show that environmental variation may affect how different populations maintain consistent variation in colony behaviour.动物行为的个体一致性变异几乎普遍存在，并具有重要的生态学与进化学意义。学界普遍认为行为可被划分为独立的行为类别或行为轴（behavioural axis），这类框架已被广泛用于描述人类与非人类动物的行为。此外，行为综合征（behavioural syndrome）——即相互关联的行为组合——通常通过检验常见行为轴下的性状变异来界定（例如经典行为综合征），而不考虑该变异是否与目标物种的生态学需求相关。本研究采用多种与生态学相关的行为指标，对岩蚁（*Temnothorax rugatulus*）的蚁群水平行为综合征展开检验。具体而言，本研究结合野外与实验室测定方法，量化了以下行为指标：觅食投入、蚁群对不同类型资源的响应、活动水平、对威胁的响应以及攻击强度。研究结果证实存在蚁群水平的行为综合征，表明不同蚁群的应对策略存在一致性差异：部分蚁群更倾向于冒险，而另一部分则更为避险。此外，通过在该物种的北美分布范围内收集数据，本研究证实环境异质性可能会影响不同种群维持蚁群行为一致性变异的方式。