laservet
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2018
- Messages
- 49
I read the older thread, interesting. My background is in ethology, the evolution of behavior, and psychology. In the older thread "socialization" was used to describe what was happening in the centipede, but that isn't what's happening, it's habituation. That there can be a difference between species in this regard is not surprising, to what degree that ability develops in a given species depends on to what degree that ability/behavior gives a selective advantage. Habituation is seen in all inverts, even earthworms. The ability to adjust to and ignore stimuli that aren't dangerous/threatening, food related, or sex related is critical, otherwise the leaf continuously moving in the breeze outside the tarantula's burrow opening would keep it pinned inside until it starved.
A classic example of a marked difference based on selective advantage is long term memory in bees. Temperate climate bees do not have long term memory, but tropical rain forest species do. Temperate zone plant life is characterized by a relatively small number of species but very large numbers of individuals of each species growing in swaths. There are large pine forests, wildflower fields, etc. In the rain forest plants there is a huge number of different species but very small numbers of widely spaced individuals of each species. Temperate zone bees don't need long term memory because their food sources when found occur in large numbers, all they need to be able to do is remember the location long enough to get back to the hive and transmit the location to the other bees in the hive.
In the tropical rain forest a bee might find one single preferred flower in one location, another a mile away, a third two miles in a different direction. Since their survival depends on their ability to remember the location of each flower, tropical bees are often called smart bees. They run a trap line from flower to flower, and one can almost set their watch based on the time a certain bee arrives at a certain flower every single day.
Inverts have been shown to respond to classical conditioning, too, so it would be interesting to tap a tarantula's cage twice before opening the lid for feeding to see if the animal responds by expecting food. Feeding videos suggest that is happening since some of the animals appear to respond to the opening of the lid by approaching to be fed.
An article about invert learning and memory:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK28212/
and one about insect brains and intelligence:
http://bioteaching.com/insect-brains-and-animal-intelligence/
A classic example of a marked difference based on selective advantage is long term memory in bees. Temperate climate bees do not have long term memory, but tropical rain forest species do. Temperate zone plant life is characterized by a relatively small number of species but very large numbers of individuals of each species growing in swaths. There are large pine forests, wildflower fields, etc. In the rain forest plants there is a huge number of different species but very small numbers of widely spaced individuals of each species. Temperate zone bees don't need long term memory because their food sources when found occur in large numbers, all they need to be able to do is remember the location long enough to get back to the hive and transmit the location to the other bees in the hive.
In the tropical rain forest a bee might find one single preferred flower in one location, another a mile away, a third two miles in a different direction. Since their survival depends on their ability to remember the location of each flower, tropical bees are often called smart bees. They run a trap line from flower to flower, and one can almost set their watch based on the time a certain bee arrives at a certain flower every single day.
Inverts have been shown to respond to classical conditioning, too, so it would be interesting to tap a tarantula's cage twice before opening the lid for feeding to see if the animal responds by expecting food. Feeding videos suggest that is happening since some of the animals appear to respond to the opening of the lid by approaching to be fed.
An article about invert learning and memory:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK28212/
and one about insect brains and intelligence:
http://bioteaching.com/insect-brains-and-animal-intelligence/