🦗 New paper in Animal Behaviour!

We asked whether family living protects European earwig juveniles from cadmium, a common environmental pollutant. Over 3 months, juveniles were reared alone, with siblings, or in full family groups.

Surprise: family living didn’t buffer cadmium toxicity! 😅 But social interactions still shaped juvenile survival, activity, and development. Social life matters… just not for cadmium.

🔗 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347225002489