Behavioural repeatability is affected by early developmental conditions in a butterfly

For developing organisms, early environmental conditions are critical as they provide cues about their environment and are thus helpful to make decisions for the short and long term. As such, the early environment is known to affect several phenotypic traits, and these can persist after developmental growth. However, the role of these early environmental conditions in shaping personality traits remains largely unknown. Here, we used a reciprocal transplant experiment to explore the effect of landscape of origin versus landscape of development on boldness and activity in a butterfly, Pararge aegeria. Larvae of woodland, agricultural and urban population origins were reared in situ in their landscape of origin or under the two alternative environmental conditions. We then repeatedly quantified boldness and activity in the F1 adults under laboratory conditions. While the landscape of development appeared to have no effect on mean trait values, it affected trait repeatability through changes in among-individual variation. Additionally, males of agricultural origin had higher mean boldness scores than woodland and urban origin males. Also, average boldness declined with testing sequence in individuals of woodland origin, but not in agricultural and urban origin individuals. Overall, our results suggest that (1) conspecifics originating from distinct habitat types differ in some aspects of boldness, and (2) early developmental conditions can affect behavioural consistency without changing mean behavioural phenotypes.