Modular patterns in behavioural evolution: webs derived from orbs

Behaviour ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 155 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Eberhard
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
High Confidence ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Construction Behaviour ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Imperfect Knowledge ◽  
Orb Web ◽  
Web Construction

Abstract Imperfect knowledge of ancestral behaviour often hampers tracing behavioural evolution. This limitation is reduced in orb weaving spiders, because spider orb web construction behaviour and the cues used by modern orb-weavers are well-studied and highly conserved. Several species in orb-weaving families build non-orb webs that are clearly derived from orbs, allowing transitions from ancestral to modern behaviours to be described with high confidence. Three major patterns of general evolutionary significance were found in 69 phylogenetically independent transitions in 15 groups in 8 families: ancestral traits were often maintained as units; the most frequent of the eight different types of ancestral trait change was transfer of an ancestral behaviour to a new context; and ‘new’ traits that had no clear homology with ancestral traits were also common. Changes occurred in all major stages of orb construction. This may be the most extensive summary of evolutionary transitions in behaviour yet compiled.

scholarly journals A derivative of the orb web and its evolutionary significance

1985 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn M. Forster ◽  
R. R. Forster
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Orb Web

Ageing alters spider orb-web construction

2012 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 1113-1121 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Anotaux ◽  
J. Marchal ◽  
N. Châline ◽  
L. Desquilbet ◽  
R. Leborgne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Orb Web ◽  
Web Construction

Genital coupling and copulatory wounding in Drosophila teissieri (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (12) ◽  
pp. 1437-1440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshitaka Kamimura ◽  
Hiroyuki Mitsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Reproductive Tract ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Dorsal Side ◽  
Female Reproductive Tract ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Paired Male ◽  
Drosophila Teissieri ◽  
Male Genital

We report genital coupling of Drosophila teissieri Tsacas, 1971, a member of the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. The species subgroup consists of nine described species including the model organism Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830. Despite numerous studies on the biology of this group, our understanding of the evolutionary significance of the diversity in their genital structures is limited. This study provides evidence that (i) during the copulation, which lasts 41.1 min, a paired male genital part (dorsal branches of the basal processes of the aedeagus) open after being inserted into the female reproductive tract, (ii) female D. teissieri have a pair of pockets on the dorsal side of their genitalia that receive bifurcated spines of the male genitalia (ventral branches of the basal processes of the aedeagus), and (iii) male genital parts, especially unique strong spines of the cerci, cause multiple copulatory wounds on membranous areas of the female genitalia. Within the established phylogeny of the D. melanogaster species subgroup, we discuss possible functions of and evolutionary transitions in these genital structures.

scholarly journals Sound Over-Approximation of Probabilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-285
Author(s):  
Eugenio Moggi ◽  
Walid Taha ◽  
Johan Thunberg
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
General Setting ◽  
High Confidence ◽  
Transition Systems ◽  
Complete Lattices ◽  
Discrete Time Systems ◽  
Finite Lattices ◽  
Different Types ◽  
System Configurations ◽  
Time Systems

Safety analysis of high confidence systems requires guaranteed bounds on the probability of events of interest. Establishing the correctness of algorithms that compute such bounds is challenging. We address this problem in three steps. First, we use monadic transition systems (MTS) in the category of sets as a general framework for modeling discrete time systems. MTS can capture different types of system behaviors, but here we focus on a combination of non-deterministic and probabilistic behaviors that arises often when modeling complex systems. Second, we use the category of posets and monotonic maps as general setting to define and compare approximations. In particular, for the MTS of interest, we consider approximations of their configurations based on complete lattices of interval probabilities. Third, we obtain an algorithm that computes over-approximations of system configurations after a finite number of steps, by restricting to finite lattices.

Evolutionary transitions in learning and cognition

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1821) ◽  
pp. 20190766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Ginsburg ◽  
Eva Jablonka
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Evolutionary Transition ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Learning And Cognition ◽  
Virtual Events ◽  
Experimental And Theoretical Studies ◽  
Qualitative Changes

We define a cognitive system as a system that can learn, and adopt an evolutionary-transition-oriented framework for analysing different types of neural cognition. This enables us to classify types of cognition and point to the continuities and discontinuities among them. The framework we use for studying evolutionary transitions in learning capacities focuses on qualitative changes in the integration, storage and use of neurally processed information. Although there are always grey areas around evolutionary transitions, we recognize five major neural transitions, the first two of which involve animals at the base of the phylogenetic tree: (i) the evolutionary transition from learning in non-neural animals to learning in the first neural animals; (ii) the transition to animals showing limited, elemental associative learning, entailing neural centralization and primary brain differentiation; (iii) the transition to animals capable of unlimited associative learning, which, on our account, constitutes sentience and entails hierarchical brain organization and dedicated memory and value networks; (iv) the transition to imaginative animals that can plan and learn through selection among virtual events; and (v) the transition to human symbol-based cognition and cultural learning. The focus on learning provides a unifying framework for experimental and theoretical studies of cognition in the living world. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Basal cognition: multicellularity, neurons and the cognitive lens’.

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