Rapid spatial learning in a velvet ant (Dasymutilla coccineohirta)

VanderSal, Nicole D.

doi:10.1007/s10071-008-0145-4

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…For example, the parasitoid Hyposoter horticola (Ichneumonidae) employs spatial learning to monitor previously identified hosts over a span of several days [86,87]. Similarly, Argochrysis armilla (Chrysididae; [88]) and Dasymutilla coccineohirta (Mutillidae, Vespoidea; [89]), both kleptoparasitic solitary aculeates, employ spatial learning to monitor the burrows of hosts. Species in all three families possess large, elaborate mushroom bodies (present account and [90]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasitoidism, not sociality, is associated with the evolution of elaborate mushroom bodies in the brains of hymenopteran insects

2010

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The social brain hypothesis posits that the cognitive demands of social behaviour have driven evolutionary expansions in brain size in some vertebrate lineages. In insects, higher brain centres called mushroom bodies are enlarged and morphologically elaborate (having doubled, invaginated and subcompartmentalized calyces that receive visual input) in social species such as the ants, bees and wasps of the aculeate Hymenoptera, suggesting that the social brain hypothesis may also apply to invertebrate animals. In a quantitative and qualitative survey of mushroom body morphology across the Hymenoptera, we demonstrate that large, elaborate mushroom bodies arose concurrent with the acquisition of a parasitoid mode of life at the base of the Euhymenopteran (Orussioidea þ Apocrita) lineage, approximately 90 Myr before the evolution of sociality in the Aculeata. Thus, sociality could not have driven mushroom body elaboration in the Hymenoptera. Rather, we propose that the cognitive demands of host-finding behaviour in parasitoids, particularly the capacity for associative and spatial learning, drove the acquisition of this evolutionarily novel mushroom body architecture. These neurobehavioural modifications may have served as pre-adaptations for central place foraging, a spatial learning-intensive behaviour that is widespread across the Aculeata and may have contributed to the multiple acquisitions of sociality in this taxon.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasitoidism, not sociality, is associated with the evolution of elaborate mushroom bodies in the brains of hymenopteran insects

2010

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“…Host location strategies that use spatial learning have been demonstrated in the parasitoid wasp Hyposoter horticola [84,85] and the kleptoparasitic wasp Dasymutilla coccineohirta [86]. Other insects with elaborate mushroom bodies receiving visual input, such as dragonflies and whirligig beetles, have preferences for patrolling from or aggregating in fixed locations that might require landmark learning [87,88].…”

Section: Factors Driving Homoplasy In Higher Brain Centresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of brain elaboration

Farris¹

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 16 to a discussion meeting issue 'Origin and evolution of the nervous system'. Large, complex brains have evolved independently in several lineages of protostomes and deuterostomes. Sensory centres in the brain increase in size and complexity in proportion to the importance of a particular sensory modality, yet often share circuit architecture because of constraints in processing sensory inputs. The selective pressures driving enlargement of higher, integrative brain centres has been more difficult to determine, and may differ across taxa. The capacity for flexible, innovative behaviours, including learning and memory and other cognitive abilities, is commonly observed in animals with large higher brain centres. Other factors, such as social grouping and interaction, appear to be important in a more limited range of taxa, while the importance of spatial learning may be a common feature in insects with large higher brain centres. Despite differences in the exact behaviours under selection, evolutionary increases in brain size tend to derive from common modifications in development and generate common architectural features, even when comparing widely divergent groups such as vertebrates and insects. These similarities may in part be influenced by the deep homology of the brains of all Bilateria, in which shared patterns of developmental gene expression give rise to positionally, and perhaps functionally, homologous domains. Other shared modifications of development appear to be the result of homoplasy, such as the repeated, independent expansion of neuroblast numbers through changes in genes regulating cell division. The common features of large brains in so many groups of animals suggest that given their common ancestry, a limited set of mechanisms exist for increasing structural and functional diversity, resulting in many instances of homoplasy in bilaterian nervous systems.

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“…representation of its environment [3][4]. Many studies have investigated spatial learning and demonstrated the ability of animals to improve their orientation in their habitat with experience [5][6][7][8][9][10]. This improved orientation contributes to the animal's fitness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-spatial information on the presence of food elevates search intensity in ant workers, leading to faster maze solving in a process parallel to spatial learning

et al. 2020

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Experience can lead to faster exploitation of food patches through spatial learning or other parallel processes. Past studies have indicated that hungry animals either search more intensively for food or learn better how to detect it. However, fewer studies have examined the contribution of non-spatial information on the presence of food nearby to maze solving, as a parallel process to spatial learning. We exposed Cataglyphis niger ant workers to a food reward and then let them search for food in a maze. The information that food existed nearby, even without spatial information, led to faster maze solving compared to a control group that was not exposed to the food prior to the experiment. Faster solving is probably achieved by a higher number of workers entering the maze, following the information that food is present nearby. In a second experiment, we allowed the ants to make successive searches in the maze, followed by removing them after they had returned to the nest and interacted with their naïve nestmates. This procedure led to a maze-solving time in-between that displayed when removing the workers immediately after they had reached the food and preventing their return to the colony, and that of no removal. The workers that interacted upon returning to the nest might have transferred to naïve workers information, unrelated to spatial learning, that food existed nearby, and driven them to commence searching. Spatial learning, or an increase in the correct movements leading to the food reward relative to those leading to dead-ends, was only evident when the same workers were allowed to search again in the same maze. However, both non-spatial information on the presence of food that elevated search intensity and spatial learning led to faster maze solving. OPEN ACCESSCitation: Bega D, Samocha Y, Yitzhak N, Saar M, Subach A, Scharf I (2020) Non-spatial information on the presence of food elevates search intensity in ant workers, leading to faster maze solving in a process parallel to spatial learning. PLoS ONE 15 (2): e0229709. https://doi.org/10.We collected 59 colonies of Cataglyphis niger from the Tel-Baruch sand dunes in Tel Aviv, Israel (32.132N, 34.788E), a public land. These sand dunes are an enclave of a disturbed natural Non-spatial information and maze solving in ants PLOS ONE | https://doi.

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Rapid spatial learning in a velvet ant (Dasymutilla coccineohirta)

Cited by 14 publications

References 43 publications

Parasitoidism, not sociality, is associated with the evolution of elaborate mushroom bodies in the brains of hymenopteran insects

Parasitoidism, not sociality, is associated with the evolution of elaborate mushroom bodies in the brains of hymenopteran insects

Evolution of brain elaboration

Non-spatial information on the presence of food elevates search intensity in ant workers, leading to faster maze solving in a process parallel to spatial learning

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