Breaking Haller's Rule: Brain-Body Size Isometry in a Minute Parasitic Wasp

Woude, Emma van der; Smid, Hans M.; Chittka, Lars; Huigens, Martinus E.

doi:10.1159/000345945

Cited by 46 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…5 b). An energetic cost constraint on brain size [Seid et al, 2011;van der Woude et al, 2013] could result in smaller workers having relatively smaller brains than would be predicted. Brain size could, in turn, limit the amount of biogenic amine production in A. cephalotes workers due to limited availability of precursors and energy costs of neural signaling.…”

Section: Worker Polymorphism and Task Specializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogenic Amines and Collective Organization in a Superorganism: Neuromodulation of Social Behavior in Ants

Kamhi¹,

Traniello²

2013

Brain Behav Evol

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The ecological dominance of ants has to a great extent been achieved through their collective action and complex social organization. Ants provide diverse model systems to examine the neural underpinnings of individual behavior and group action that contribute to their evolutionary success. Core elements of ant colony structure such as reproductive and ergonomic division of labor, task specialization, and social integration are beginning to be understood in terms of cellular neuroanatomy and neurochemistry. In this review we discuss the neuroethology of colony organization by focusing on the role of biogenic amines in the control of social behavior in ants. We examine the role of neuromodulation in significant sociobiological characteristics of ants, including reproductive hierarchies, colony foundation, social food flow, nestmate recognition, territoriality, and size- and age-related sensory perception and task performance as well as the involvement of monoamines in collective intelligence, the ultimate key to the global dominance of these remarkable superorganisms. We conclude by suggesting future directions for the analysis of the aminergic regulation of behavior and social complexity in ants.

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Section: Worker Polymorphism and Task Specializationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogenic Amines and Collective Organization in a Superorganism: Neuromodulation of Social Behavior in Ants

Kamhi¹,

Traniello²

2013

Brain Behav Evol

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“…Brain size plasticity may, therefore, be more extreme in T. evanescens than in species that scale their brains allometrically. We have previously found a 5-fold difference in brain volume between genetically similar small and large sister wasps [Van der Woude et al, 2013]. This indicates that there is extreme phenotypic plasticity in brain size in this species, which is solely determined by the amount of nutrition that was available during development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…These increasing energetic demands eventually limit evolutionary miniaturization of a species [Eberhard and Wcislo, 2011], and may similarly limit the variation in body size within a species. Interestingly, some of the smallest animals on Earth appear to "evade" Haller's rule [Van der Woude et al, 2013;Groothuis and Smid, 2017]. Among these are Trichogramma evanescens , minute parasitoid wasps that develop inside the eggs of butterflies and moths.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This results in phenotypic plasticity in body size; body length can range between 0.3 and 0.9 mm in genetically identical sister wasps [Van der Woude and Smid, 2016]. T. evanescens parasitic wasps do not show negative brain-body size allometry, but scale their brains in a linear way with body size [Van der Woude et al, 2013]. Such isometric brain scaling, with scaling coefficients equal to 1, results in the same relative brain size in small and large wasps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Isometric Brain-Body Size Scaling on the Complexity of Monoaminergic Neurons in a Minute Parasitic Wasp

Woude

Smid²

2017

Brain Behav Evol

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Trichogramma evanescens parasitic wasps show large phenotypic plasticity in brain and body size, resulting in a 5-fold difference in brain volume among genetically identical sister wasps. Brain volume scales linearly with body volume in these wasps. This isometric brain scaling forms an exception to Haller's rule, which states that small animals have relatively larger brains than large animals. The large plasticity in brain size may be facilitated by plasticity in neuron size, in the number of neurons, or both. Here, we investigated whether brain isometry requires plasticity in the number and size of monoaminergic neurons that express serotonin (5HT), octopamine (OA), and dopamine (DA). Genetically identical small and large T. evanescens appear to have the same number of 5HT-, OA-, and DA-like immunoreactive cell bodies in their brains, but these cell bodies differ in diameter. This indicates that brain isometry can be facilitated by plasticity in the size of monoaminergic neurons, rather than plasticity in numbers of monoaminergic neurons. Selection pressures on body miniaturization may have resulted in the evolution of miniaturized neural pathways that allow even the smallest wasps to find suitable hosts. Plasticity in the size of neural components may be among the mechanisms that underlie isometric brain scaling while maintaining cognitive abilities in the smallest individuals.

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“…Yet, the behavioural complexity of small-bodied arthropods is often surprisingly similar in quality to that of vastly larger vertebrates [6,12]. In fact, extremely small arthropods that have brains smaller than some single-celled protists [9,13] are capable of behaviours similar in sophistication to those performed by larger bodied relatives [8]. Moreover, abstract cognitive abilities previously thought to be exclusive to the repertoires of large-brained vertebrates or some cephalopods [14] have recently been demonstrated in insects [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investment in higher order central processing regions is not constrained by brain size in social insects

et al. 2014

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The extent to which size constrains the evolution of brain organization and the genesis of complex behaviour is a central, unanswered question in evolutionary neuroscience. Advanced cognition has long been linked to the expansion of specific brain compartments, such as the neocortex in vertebrates and the mushroom bodies in insects. Scaling constraints that limit the size of these brain regions in small animals may therefore be particularly significant to behavioural evolution. Recent findings from studies of paper wasps suggest miniaturization constrains the size of central sensory processing brain centres (mushroom body calyces) in favour of peripheral, sensory input centres (antennal and optic lobes). We tested the generality of this hypothesis in diverse eusocial hymenopteran species (ants, bees and wasps) exhibiting striking variation in body size and thus brain size. Combining multiple neuroanatomical datasets from these three taxa, we found no universal size constraint on brain organization within or among species. In fact, small-bodied ants with miniscule brains had mushroom body calyces proportionally as large as or larger than those of wasps and bees with brains orders of magnitude larger. Our comparative analyses suggest that brain organization in ants is shaped more by natural selection imposed by visual demands than intrinsic design limitations.

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Breaking Haller's Rule: Brain-Body Size Isometry in a Minute Parasitic Wasp

Cited by 46 publications

References 35 publications

Biogenic Amines and Collective Organization in a Superorganism: Neuromodulation of Social Behavior in Ants

Biogenic Amines and Collective Organization in a Superorganism: Neuromodulation of Social Behavior in Ants

Effects of Isometric Brain-Body Size Scaling on the Complexity of Monoaminergic Neurons in a Minute Parasitic Wasp

Investment in higher order central processing regions is not constrained by brain size in social insects

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