Séminaire PhilSciCog

Nous avons le plaisir d'accueillir Raphaël Jeanson (DR, Centre de recherche sur la cognition animale, Toulouse)

Titre : Behavioural Plasticity, Ontogenesis and Social Transitions in Spiders

Résumé : Sociality is as a recurrent characteristic among various animal taxa. The maintenance of social cohesion in juveniles at advanced stages of development is considered to be the main route, shared by numerous lineages, towards the emergence of permanent sociality. However, the mechanisms involved in this behavioural transition remain to be elucidated. Spiders are relevant models for exploring this question. Indeed, the vast majority of the 53,000 known species are solitary in adulthood, but transient gregariousness is a universal feature of spiders, and 19 species have evolved towards permanent sociality. This makes this taxon invaluable for initiating comparative studies. This talk will address the link between ontogeny and sociality by presenting the results of several experiments aimed at understanding the mechanisms responsible for tolerance in solitary spiders, with an emphasis on communication and behavioural plasticity. Furthermore, it will propose potential mechanisms that may be implicated in the transition to permanent sociality.