Is death-feigning adaptive? Heritable variation in fitness difference of death-feigning behaviour

Selectively bred beetles for long and for short death-feigning duration over generations, then exposed both lines to a jumping spider predator and compared survival.

Studied in

Cylas formicarius

Sample size

beetles from lines selected for long and short death-feigning

Death-feigning duration responded to selection, confirming it is heritable, and beetles from the long-duration line survived spider attacks significantly better than those from the short-duration line.

• One beetle species with one predator, under laboratory conditions.
• Selection lines can diverge in other traits alongside the target, which the authors address but cannot entirely exclude.

• Breeding beetles for playing dead, then sending in a spider

  Death feigning looks like a defence. Is it heritable, and does it actually improve survival against a real predator?

• Playing dead

  Beetles bred for longer death-feigning survived spider attacks better than beetles bred for shorter. It is heritable, it works, and it works by exploiting how predators handle prey rather than by being convincing.