Research
Social and sexual networks of bed bugs
Studies on social behaviour typically do not consider sexual conflict and most research on sexual conflict does not address its potential ramifications for the evolution of social behaviour. Thus, I developed a novel semi-naturalistic arena for tracking the sexual and social networks of bed bugs (Cimex lectularius). I demonstrated that there can be conflict between the sexes over the ideal composition of social groups (Yan and Dukas, 2022) and that social experience does not appear to improve bed bugs' sexual competency (Yan et al. 2024a).
The adaptive significance of polyandry
It is now clear that polyandry (females mating with multiple males) is a widely occurring natural phenomenon. Yet, how polyandry influences various aspects of female fitness remains poorly understood. In my own research, I have found that realistically high rates of mating dramatically reduces female fitness in bed bugs (Yan et al. 2024b) but enhances female fitness in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) (Yan et al. 2024c).
Collective decision-making in ants
How are some social animals able to achieve consensus decisions with seemingly little to no deliberation? To discover the rules that underpin collective decision-making processes, I have worked on how various species of acorn ants (Temnothorax spp. and Leptothorax spp.) collectively move into new nest sites once their original nests are destroyed (Yan et al. 2024; Kashetsky et al. 2023).
Winner and loser effects
Aggregation network of bed bugs taken from Yan and Dukas (2022).
A painted Temnothorax ambiguus colony. Here, we tracked changes in social network structure over successive emigrations (Kashetsky et al. 2022).
Winners of aggressive contests are more likely to win successive contests and losers are more likely to lose successive contests. In the first comprehensive meta-analysis of winner and loser effects, I showed that these effects are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom (Yan et al. 2024e).