Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE, Canada.
Curr Biol. 2021 Nov 22;31(22):4983-4997.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.030. Epub 2021 Oct 6.
The geometric complexity and stereotypy of spider webs have long generated interest in their algorithmic origin. Like other examples of animal architecture, web construction is the result of several assembly phases that are driven by distinct behavioral stages coordinated to build a successful structure. Manual observations have revealed a range of sensory cues and movement patterns used during web construction, but methods to systematically quantify the dynamics of these sensorimotor patterns are lacking. Here, we apply an analytical pipeline to quantify web-making behavior of the orb-weaver Uloborus diversus. Position tracking revealed stereotyped stages of construction that could occur in typical or atypical progressions across individuals. Using an unsupervised clustering approach, we identified general and stage-specific leg movements. A hierarchical hidden Markov model revealed that web-building stages are characterized by stereotyped sequences of actions largely shared across individuals, regardless of whether these stages progress in a typical or an atypical fashion. Web stages could be predicted based on action sequences alone, revealing that web-stage geometries are a physical manifestation of behavioral transition regimes.
蜘蛛网络的几何复杂性和刻板性长期以来一直引起人们对其算法起源的兴趣。与其他动物建筑的例子一样，蛛网的构建是由几个组装阶段组成的，这些阶段由协调以构建成功结构的不同行为阶段驱动。手动观察揭示了在蛛网构建过程中使用的一系列感觉提示和运动模式，但缺乏系统地量化这些感觉运动模式动态的方法。在这里，我们应用一个分析管道来量化圆蛛 Uloborus diversus 的织网行为。位置跟踪显示了构建的刻板阶段，这些阶段可能在个体之间以典型或非典型的顺序发生。使用无监督聚类方法，我们确定了一般和阶段特异性的腿部运动。分层隐马尔可夫模型表明，蛛网构建阶段的特点是个体之间共享的大量刻板动作序列，无论这些阶段是以典型还是非典型的方式进行。可以仅基于动作序列来预测网阶段，这表明网阶段的几何形状是行为过渡状态的物理表现。
