Dawkins mentioned spider sociality in The Selfish Gene about the same time, so it must have been a hot research topic then, probably funded by the International Conspiracy in order to raise the profile and burnish the image of SOC1AL1SM.
This guy reckons that the social strategy has short-term ecological advantages but is an evolutionary dead-end. Apparently the several spider species that follow a communal life-style have adopted it independently, rather than all inheriting it from a single social parent species. He suggests that each time a species invents sociality, it's "accompanied by a switch in breeding system [...] to inbreeding" , i.e. they cut themselves off from the wider gene-pool, and succumb to the next change in circumstances.IT'S A METAPHOR, people.
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In quasisocial species juveniles typically never leave the natal colony and therefore sociality is accompanied by a switch in breeding system from outbred panmictic to inbreeding.
Well, here's your problem- maybe a socialist jobs bill would give the young spiders a wage sufficient to allow them to move out.
outbred panmictic
If IKEA are going to sell self-assembly sandwiches, they could at least put more effort into translating the instructions into English.
panmictic
The process of creating an outbred panmictic is panmicturation.
S.C.and his fucking metaphors.
Hmph!
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And this is why Spider Facebook never stood a chance.
LOL @ Jennifer, Spider H8er!
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While I remain unconcerned about either the literal or metaphorical socialized arachnids, albeit with a small shiver up my spine at the thought of inbred hillbilly spiders spinning banjos from their own silk and chewing tobacco rather than prey, I can't help but admit to a deep and abiding fear of the occasional black-sheep ANTI-social spider.
You see, it's hard for me to see even normal spider behavior as anything BUT sociopathic, what with the lurking and the trapping and the poisoning and the killing and most of all the large red welts from the, one must assume, perfectly well adjusted and socialized spiders hiding in my sofa and biting MY ass, so when I think of an angry, bitter, isolated, mentally ill spider, indeed, the Travis Bickel of the spider species, pacing it's web sleeplessly while repeating over and over in it's tiny, diseased spider mind all the perceived slights and injuries inflicted upon it over the course of it's malignant little spider life, well, I don't mind telling you I tremble in fear and cling just a little tighter to my extra-large can of Raid™...
IT'S A METAPHOR, people.
This is why Stalin on his deathbed said to Brezhnev, "Leonid, I am your father and your brother." It also explains Russia's poor performance at the Vancouver Olympics.
the lurking and the trapping and the poisoning and the killing and most of all the large red welts
I thought that was your ex-wife.
Oh my heavens no.
She NEVER lurked or hid...
"accompanied by a switch in breeding system [...] to inbreeding"
Ain't nothing as fascinating as humpirical science.
...of course, there's lots of inbred (selfing, even - don't try this at home) species that are wildly successful (according to whatever arbitrary species success rating is applied)... mostly plants... animals don't seem to have got quite the hang of the breeding system diversity thing.
animals don't seem to have got quite the hang of the breeding system diversity thing.
Inability to propagate asexually has it's disadvantages. Yeah, yeah, I know that parthenogenesis takes place, but it's not that common.
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