#316 Colin Wright: Insect Personality, And The New Evolution Deniers
RECORDED ON JANUARY 18th, 2020.
Dr. Colin Wright is Eberly Fellow in the Department of Biology at Pennsylvania State University. His research explores the effects of animal personality on collective behavior and colony success. Using a combination of laboratory and field experiments, he tests for relationships between group personality composition, inter-colony differences in collective behavior and behavioral flexibility, and colony performance. He uses social spiders (genus Stegodyphus) and paper wasps (genus Polistes) to probe these topics.
In this episode, we focus on insect personality. We start by discussing how we can properly study animal personality, and what it is about. We also talk about insect personality at the individual and collective levels, we ask if it can be facultative, and we refer to behavioral plasticity. We also mention the impact of human intervention in these species’ habitats, group and multilevel selection, and how keystone individuals influence collective learning and group success. We explore if it is possible to gain some insights about animal personality that could be extrapolated from these insect societies to other social animals. Finally, we go through some of the main topics of a Quillette article by Dr. Wright, “The New Evolution Deniers”, and refer to issues regarding primarily sex and gender.
Time Links:
Studying animal personality
Insect personality at the individual and the collective levels
Eusocial insects
Is insect personality facultative?
Behavioral plasticity
Human intervention in their environments/habitats
Group selection and multilevel selection
How keystone individuals influence collective learning and group success
Can we gain some insights about animal personality that could be extrapolated from these insect societies to other social animals?
The new evolution deniers
Sex and gender
Follow Dr. Wright’s work!
Follow Dr. Wright’s work:
Faculty Page: http://bit.ly/2qJN6x1
ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2CsXFan
Quillette author page: http://bit.ly/2pYCyu6
The New Evolution Deniers: http://bit.ly/2G4zpgQ
Twitter handle: @SwipeWright