Behavioral Ecology Blog

The Invisible Sex Dance of Psychedelic Spiders, Science Paper
As if dressed for a psychedelic rave, jumping spiders sport glowing patches on their bodies to lure in eight-legged mates, a new study finds.
Jumping spiders of both sexes are known for their excellent eyesight, particularly in the ultraviolet wavelengths, and male jumping spiders are equipped with UV-reflecting [...]

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By Hook or by Crook? Morphometry, Competition and Cooperation in Rodent Sperm

Sperm design varies enormously across species and sperm competition is thought to be a major factor influencing this variation. However, the functional significance of many sperm traits is still poorly understood. The sperm of most murid rodents are characterised by an apical hook of [...]

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Aspirin and Sex Video, also here
A man’s sex drive in adulthood could be weakened if his mother took aspirin while pregnant. As this ScieneCentral News video reports, that’s the suggestion of a new study done in rats.
Radio tags track wasp behaviour
To track the wasps, the team fitted the insects with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags [...]

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In an exceptionally interesting set of experiments (Published here) using wild banded mongooses in Uganda, Swiss researchers are providing an example contra to the popular “dear enemy” hypothesis***. They did a simple but clear experiment using artificially deployed scent marks from both neighbor groups and non-neighbor groups. In short- banded mongooses acted more [...]

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What is fitness- (as it relates to evolution)?
I am largely motivated by a Wilkins post over at Evolving Thoughts, where he attempts to define fitness as part of the “basic concepts” series, and largely (I think) misses the point. (Although the more philosophical points are excellent)
John’s Definition: Fitness is the rate of [...]

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In a post over at Steve Sailer’s blog, kin selection is used explain nepotism. He sparks interest in the beginning of the post with this statement:
I’ve noticed that a lot of smart people like Richard Dawkins and Gregory Cochran assume that while Pierre L. van den Berghe’s theory of ethnic nepotism –which extends W.D. [...]

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About bacterial species concepts– or the lack thereof…

The prevailing definition of a bacterial species is that of a coherent group of organisms more similar to themselves than they are to other things.. this is primarily thought of as in terms of phenotype or gene sequence. The degree of similarity is currently measured as >70% [...]

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Gorilla birth to broadcast live on the web- see it here
Scabies infecting elk in Yellowstone
The number of elk in the Yellowstone National Park region infected with scabies, a skin infestation caused by mites, is up this year, state wildlife officials say. The disease can be fatal, especially when an animal’s health has been weakened for [...]

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OK, now this all sound extremely sexist and all, and for that I apologize- but really, it seems to be true. In a paper published last year in the Proceeding of the Royal Society B, Belgian scientists find exactly that- men can’t really think straight after seeing beautiful women. (Note to wife: I am clearly [...]

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The newest edition of Mendel’s Garden, the genetics carnival, is up on Neurotopia.

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