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Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains

The brains of smaller animals are smaller than those of their larger relatives, but it is not clear whether their adaptive behavioral flexibility is more limited. Previous interspecific comparisons found that aspects of web construction behavior of very small orb weaving spiders (0.005 mg) were no l...

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Autores principales: Quesada-Hidalgo, Rosannette, Eberhard, William G., Barrantes, Gilbert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8208555/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34133428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251919
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author Quesada-Hidalgo, Rosannette
Eberhard, William G.
Barrantes, Gilbert
author_facet Quesada-Hidalgo, Rosannette
Eberhard, William G.
Barrantes, Gilbert
author_sort Quesada-Hidalgo, Rosannette
collection PubMed
description The brains of smaller animals are smaller than those of their larger relatives, but it is not clear whether their adaptive behavioral flexibility is more limited. Previous interspecific comparisons found that aspects of web construction behavior of very small orb weaving spiders (0.005 mg) were no less precise than those of much larger related orb weavers (30 mg), but the behaviors tested were relatively simple. Here we perform a more sensitive intraspecific test involving the multiple behavioral adjustments of orb web designs made by Leucauge argyra to confinement in very small spaces. Web adjustments of spiderlings as small as ~0.1 mg were compared to previously published observations of ~80 mg conspecific adults. Spiderlings in constrained spaces made all of the complex adjustments made by adults in at least seven independent web design variables, and their adjustments were no less precise. Rough estimates based on previously published data on total brain volumes and the mean diameters of neuron cell bodies suggested that spiderlings and adult females of Leucauge may have similar numbers of neurons, due to spiderlings having smaller neurons and a greater percentage of body tissues dedicated to the brain. We speculate that this neural similarity may explain why L. argyra spiderlings showed no behavioral deficits compared with adults.
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spelling pubmed-82085552021-06-29 Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains Quesada-Hidalgo, Rosannette Eberhard, William G. Barrantes, Gilbert PLoS One Research Article The brains of smaller animals are smaller than those of their larger relatives, but it is not clear whether their adaptive behavioral flexibility is more limited. Previous interspecific comparisons found that aspects of web construction behavior of very small orb weaving spiders (0.005 mg) were no less precise than those of much larger related orb weavers (30 mg), but the behaviors tested were relatively simple. Here we perform a more sensitive intraspecific test involving the multiple behavioral adjustments of orb web designs made by Leucauge argyra to confinement in very small spaces. Web adjustments of spiderlings as small as ~0.1 mg were compared to previously published observations of ~80 mg conspecific adults. Spiderlings in constrained spaces made all of the complex adjustments made by adults in at least seven independent web design variables, and their adjustments were no less precise. Rough estimates based on previously published data on total brain volumes and the mean diameters of neuron cell bodies suggested that spiderlings and adult females of Leucauge may have similar numbers of neurons, due to spiderlings having smaller neurons and a greater percentage of body tissues dedicated to the brain. We speculate that this neural similarity may explain why L. argyra spiderlings showed no behavioral deficits compared with adults. Public Library of Science 2021-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8208555/ /pubmed/34133428 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251919 Text en © 2021 Quesada-Hidalgo et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Quesada-Hidalgo, Rosannette
Eberhard, William G.
Barrantes, Gilbert
Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains
title Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains
title_full Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains
title_fullStr Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains
title_full_unstemmed Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains
title_short Complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains
title_sort complex behavioral plasticity is not reduced in spiderlings with miniature brains
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8208555/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34133428
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251919
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