ALT: two ladybugs are hugging each other in the grass with hearts surrounding them .

Ecology and Evolution, Volume 15, Issue 8, August 2025.

Consistently returning to or remaining within a specific location, a behavior known as site fidelity, is a useful metric for quantifying animal space use. When multiple individuals display similar site fidelity patterns, they are likely to interact, shaping the degree and quality of their social interactions. However, the link between the expression of site fidelity behavior and an individual’s social experience has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study we examined (1) how intrinsic individual properties (body size and sex) predicted variation in site fidelity and (2) whether site fidelity was linked to the social experience of individuals in wild populations of Bolitotherus cornutus (forked fungus beetles). We found that body size correlated with site fidelity differently in males and females. Smaller females and larger males returned more often or stayed at a particular site (expressed higher site fidelity). We also found that individuals that expressed greater site fidelity experienced more social interactions especially among larger females and smaller males. Our results suggest that site fidelity might be an underappreciated aspect of animal behavior that influences the social experience of individuals and may have cascading effects on population-level phenomena such as social networks, sexual selection, and conspecific competition.

Consistently returning to or remaining within a specific location, a behavior known as site fidelity, is a useful metric for quantifying animal space use. When multiple individuals display similar site fidelity patterns, they are likely to interact, shaping the degree and quality of their social interactions. However, the link between the expression of site fidelity behavior and an individual’s social experience has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study we examined (1) how intrinsic individual properties (body size and sex) predicted variation in site fidelity and (2) whether site fidelity was linked to the social experience of individuals in wild populations of Bolitotherus cornutus (forked fungus beetles). We found that body size correlated with site fidelity differently in males and females. Smaller females and larger males returned more often or stayed at a particular site (expressed higher site fidelity). We also found that individuals that expressed greater site fidelity experienced more social interactions especially among larger females and smaller males. Our results suggest that site fidelity might be an underappreciated aspect of animal behavior that influences the social experience of individuals and may have cascading effects on population-level phenomena such as social networks, sexual selection, and conspecific competition.