Invertebrate behavioural responses to 3D-printed insect replicas, featuring combinations of traits from wasps and flies, in laboratory trials

We investigated how different species of invertebrate, all potential predators of flower-visiting insects, responded to 3D printed wasp-like and fly-like stimuli. Our predators were jumping spiders, crab spiders and praying mantises. Each received training to associate wasp stimuli with a negative experience, while fly stimuli were not associated with any positive or negative experience. We then tested predator responses to a range of novel mimetic stimuli with varying levels of similarity to the wasp stimulus. The aim was to determine how accurately a stimulus needed to mimic the negatively-conditioned wasp stimulus before it would be mistaken for the wasp by the predators .

Behavioural observations were conducted in real time during the experimental trials, with video recordings taken in some cases for later reference. A stopwatch was used for timings.

Data have been cleaned (for example, removal of invalid or unused data points) and formatted using custom scripts in R v4.3.2.

Related datasets

Scanned 3D images and 3D printable images based on combinations of features of Diptera and Hymenoptera collected from the UK in 2021-22