Nymphal density, behavioral development, and life history in a field cricket

Population density regulates the strength of intraspecific competition and may thereby be reflected in life-history variables, such as development time, growth rate, or investment in immune defense. However, population density may also affect the fitness payoffs of different behaviors and consequently shape the development of personality. Here we studied if population density during nymphal development (one, four, or ten individuals raised together) affects the level of boldness, measured as the latency time to recover from freezing and emerge from a shelter, aggressiveness towards conspecifics or their correlation at the adult stage in the field crickets, Gryllus integer. In addition, we tested if individuals invest more resources in immune function or speed up their development in response to a high conspecifics density during ontogeny. Nymphal density did not affect adult boldness or aggressiveness towards conspecific males per se, but these variables showed a negative association, i.e., indicated an unconventional behavioral syndrome in the highest density treatment. Supporting the effectiveness of density treatments in inducing plastic responses, individuals reached maturity sooner and invested more resources in immune function in the highest nymphal density group compared to groups consisting of one or four individuals. Our results suggest that population density may play an important role in shaping both the realized life history and development of behavioral syndromes.