DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ht76hdrvq
title: Data from: The last of us: Social information enhances trappability in fruit flies

description: When facing novel conditions, animals must make decisions crucial to
 survival with little precedence. Such decisions are not made in
 isolation: animals collect information by observing conspecifics,
 suggesting that social information may modify the population-level impact
 of shifting environmental conditions. We tested the competing hypotheses
 that social information could help or hinder animals to avoid an
 evolutionary trap, a phenomenon often created by anthropogenic
 modification. By manipulating the magnitude of a social cue, we examined
 how the number of already-drowned conspecifics influenced fruit flies’
 (Drosophila melanogaster) responses to vinegar traps. We found that flies
 were faster to drown in traps with more conspecifics, supporting the
 hypothesis that social information can facilitate maladaptive decisions.
 Moreover, sex and prior mating experience drove variation in this
 response: mated females had higher survival probabilities compared to
 unmated females and males. This work highlights how anthropogenic change
 can shift the fitness benefits of social information reliance, potentially
 making evolutionary traps even deadlier.
description: # Data from: The last of us: Social information enhances trappability in
 fruit flies Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.ht76hdrvq](10.5061/dryad.ht76hdrvq) ## Description of the
 data and file structure This data is from a series of behavioral
 experiments with fruit flies to test the competing hypotheses that social
 information could help or hinder animals to avoid an evolutionary trap. By
 manipulating the magnitude of a social cue, we examined how the number of
 already-drowned conspecifics influenced fruit flies’ responses to vinegar
 traps. ### Files and variables #### File: Social_Traps_092223.csv
 **Description:** Data for analysis in main manuscript ##### Variables *
 Date: date of trial * Arena: arena, up to 25 arena locations per day *
 Treatment: number of drowned conspecifics within a trap * Focal: focal sex
 and mating experience identity (i.e., mated male (M_m), unmated female
 (F_v), mated female (F_m)) * Trap_side: relative location of trap compared
 to food within the arena * Time_in: time of day focal fly was aspirated
 into the arena * Location_1hr: location of fly 1 hr after fly was first
 aspirated into the arena (T = alive perched on trap vial; A = alive within
 the arena; F = alive perched on food vial; D = dead, trapped; Tip = in the
 pipette tip, not yet entered the arena) * Location_3hr: location of fly 3
 hr after fly was first aspirated into the arena (see Location_1hr for
 details) * Location_5hr: location of fly 5 hr after fly was first
 aspirated into the arena (see Location_1hr for details) *
 Location_24hr: location of fly 24 hr after fly was first aspirated into
 the arena (see Location_1hr for details) * Trapped_within: time period
 within which fly was found dead in the trap. Blank = fly was alive and not
 dead #### File: Appendix_Social_Traps_102623.csv **Description:** Data for
 analysis in appendix ##### Variables * Date: date of trial * Treatment:
 treatment of vinegar trap, either experimental (i.e., with soap added) or
 control (i.e., no soap addded) * ID: individual fly ID for focal fly *
 Sex: fly sex either female (F) or male (M) * Sex_Treatment: unique code
 for the combination of sex and treatment * Trapped_within: time period
 within which fly was found dead in the trap * 10min: location of fly 10
 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena (numbers correspond
 to region of the vial fly was found in and represent that the fly's
 location was recorded when alive every 10 minutes). No location indicates
 that the fly was found dead in the trap at the ten minute mark. *
 20min: location of fly 20 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the
 arena * 30min: location of fly 30 minutes after fly was first aspirated
 into the arena * 40min: location of fly 40 minutes after fly was first
 aspirated into the arena * 50min: location of fly 50 minutes after fly was
 first aspirated into the arena * 60min: location of fly 60 minutes after
 fly was first aspirated into the arena * 70min: location of fly 70 minutes
 after fly was first aspirated into the arena * 80min: location of fly 80
 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena * 90min: location of
 fly 90 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the arena *
 100min: location of fly 100 minutes after fly was first aspirated into the
 arena * 110min: location of fly 110 minutes after fly was first aspirated
 into the arena * 120min: location of fly 120 minutes after fly was first
 aspirated into the arena * 130min: location of fly 130 minutes after fly
 was first aspirated into the arena ## Code/software Data and code to
 generate statistics and figures are available at:
 [https://github.com/ljpollack/socialtraps](https://github.com/ljpollack/socialtraps). ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * Data and code to generate statistics and figures are available at: [https://github.com/ljpollack/socialtraps](https://github.com/ljpollack/socialtraps).