We show that a new synthesis of experimental data can emerge by embedding a mechanistic plant growth model, widely studied in agronomy, in a consumer-resource modelling framework, widely studied in ecology. The future challenge is to use this insight to inform practical decision making by farmers and growers.Many prey species have evolved collective responses to avoid predation. They rapidly transfer information about potential predators to trigger and coordinate escape waves. Predation avoidance behaviour is often manipulated by trophically transmitted parasites, to facilitate their transmission to the next host. We hypothesized that the presence of infected, behaviourally altered individuals might disturb the spread of escape waves. We used the tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus, which increases risk-taking behaviour and decreases social responsiveness of its host, the three-spined stickleback, to test this hypothesis. Three subgroups of sticklebacks were placed next to one another in separate compartments with shelter. The middle subgroup contained either uninfected or infected sticklebacks. We confronted an outer subgroup with an artificial bird strike and studied how the escape response spread through the subgroups. With uninfected sticklebacks in the middle, escape waves spread rapidly through the entire shoal and fish remained in shelter thereafter. With infected sticklebacks in the middle, the escape wave was disrupted and uninfected fish rarely used the shelter. Infected individuals can disrupt the transmission of flight responses, thereby not only increasing their own predation risk but also that of their uninfected shoal members. Our study uncovers a potentially far-reaching fitness consequence of grouping with infected individuals.High-quality developmental environments often improve individual performance into adulthood, but allocating toward early life traits, such as growth, development rate and reproduction, may lead to trade-offs with late-life performance. It is, therefore, uncertain how a rich developmental environment will affect the ageing process (senescence), particularly in wild insects. To investigate the effects of early life environmental quality on insect life-history traits, including senescence, we reared larval antler flies (Protopiophila litigata) on four diets of varying nutrient concentration, then recorded survival and mating success of adult males released in the wild. Declining diet quality was associated with slower development, but had no effect on other life-history traits once development time was accounted for. Fast-developing males were larger and lived longer, but experienced more rapid senescence in survival and lower average mating rate compared to slow developers. Ultimately, larval diet, development time and body size did not predict lifetime mating success.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/neo2734.html  Thus, a rich environment led to a mixture of apparent benefits and costs, mediated by development time. Our results indicate that 'silver spoon' effects can be complex and that development time mediates the response of adult life-history traits to early life environmental quality.Although crucial for host survival when facing persistent parasite pressure, costly immune functions will inevitably compete for resources with other energetically expensive traits such as reproduction. Optimizing, but not necessarily maximizing, immune function might therefore provide net benefit to overall host fitness. Evidence for associations between fitness and immune function is relatively rare, limiting our potential to understand ultimate fitness costs of immune investment. Here, we assess how measures of constitutive immune function (haptoglobin, natural antibodies, complement activity) relate to subsequent fitness outcomes (survival, reproductive success, dominance acquisition) in a wild passerine (Malurus coronatus). Surprisingly, survival probability was not positively linearly predicted by any immune index. Instead, both low and high values of complement activity (quadratic effect) were associated with higher survival, suggesting that different immune investment strategies might reflect a dynamic disease environment. Positive linear relationships between immune indices and reproductive success suggest that individual heterogeneity overrides potential resource reallocation trade-offs within individuals. Controlling for body condition (size-adjusted body mass) and chronic stress (heterophil-lymphocyte ratio) did not alter our findings in a sample subset with available data. Overall, our results suggest that constitutive immune components have limited net costs for fitness and that variation in immune maintenance relates to individual differences more closely.Corallivorous crown-of-thorns starfishes (Acanthaster spp.) can decimate coral assemblages on Indo-Pacific coral reefs during population outbreaks. While initial drivers of population irruptions leading to outbreaks remain largely unknown, subsequent dispersal of outbreaks appears coincident with depletion of coral prey. Here, we used in situ time-lapse photography to characterize movement of the Pacific crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris) in the northern and southern Great Barrier Reef in 2015, during the fourth recorded population outbreak of the starfish, but prior to widespread coral bleaching. Daily tracking of 58 individuals over a total of 1117 h revealed all starfish to move a minimum of 0.52 m, with around half of all tracked starfish showing negligible daily displacement (less than 1 m day-1), ranging up to a maximum of 19 m day-1. Movement was primarily nocturnal and daily displacement varied spatially with variation in local availability of Acropora spp., which is the preferred coral prey. Two distinct behavioural modes emerged (i) homing movement, whereby tracked paths (as tested against a random-walk-model) involved short displacement distances following distinct 'outward' movement to Acropora prey (typically displaying 'feeding scars') and 'homebound' movement to nearby shelter; versus (ii) roaming movement, whereby individuals showed directional movement beyond initial tracking positions without return. Logistic modelling revealed more than half of all tracked starfish demonstrated homing when local abundance (percentage cover) of preferred Acropora coral prey was greater than 33%. Our results reveal facultative homing by Acanthaster with the prey-dependent behavioural switch to roaming forays providing a mechanism explaining localized aggregations and diffusion of these population irruptions as prey is locally depleted.