ArticleBrain, behavior and evolution2017
Nasonia Parasitic Wasps Escape from Haller's Rule by Diphasic, Partially Isometric Brain-Body Size Scaling and Selective Neuropil Adaptations.
Article in Brain, behavior and evolution, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed.
- A case of polyploid utility in biocontrol: reproductively-impaired triploid Nasonia vitripennis have high host-killing ability.Pest management science · 2025Article
- White Paper: An Integrated Perspective on the Causes of Hypometric Metabolic Scaling in Animals.Integrative and comparative biology · 2022Article
- Structure of the Brain of the Smallest Coleoptera.Doklady. Biochemistry and biophysics · 2022Article
- Social Brain Energetics: Ergonomic Efficiency, Neurometabolic Scaling, and Metabolic Polyphenism in Ants.Integrative and comparative biology · 2022Article
- Behavioral performance and division of labor influence brain mosaicism in the leafcutter ant Atta cephalotes.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022Article
- AInsects · 2021Review
- Insects Provide Unique Systems to Investigate How Early-Life Experience Alters the Brain and Behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
- Brain Size, Metabolism, and Social Evolution.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Brain morphology predicts social intelligence in wild cleaner fish.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Constant neuropilar ratio in the insect brain.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Life-history traits of the Whiting polyploid line of the parasitoidEntomologia experimentalis et applicata · 2019Article
- No gains for bigger brains: Functional and neuroanatomical consequences of relative brain size in a parasitic wasp.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2019Article
- Selection for associative learning of color stimuli reveals correlated evolution of this learning ability across multiple stimuli and rewards.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2018Article
- Effects of Isometric Brain-Body Size Scaling on the Complexity of Monoaminergic Neurons in a Minute Parasitic Wasp.Brain, behavior and evolution · 2017Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Haller's rule states that brains scale allometrically with body size in all animals, meaning that relative brain size increases with decreasing body size. This rule applies both on inter- and intraspecific comparisons. Only 1 species, the extremely small parasitic wasp Trichogramma evanescens, is known as an exception and shows an isometric brain-body size relation in an intraspecific comparison between differently sized individuals. Here, we investigated if such an isometric brain-body size relationship also occurs in an intraspecific comparison with a slightly larger parasitic wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, a species that may vary 10-fold in body weight upon differences in levels of scramble competition during larval development. We show that Nasonia exhibits diphasic brain-body size scaling: larger wasps scale allometrically, following Haller's rule, whereas the smallest wasps show isometric scaling. Brains of smaller wasps are, therefore, smaller than expected and we hypothesized that this may lead to adaptations in brain architecture. Volumetric analysis of neuropil composition revealed that wasps of different sizes differed in relative volume of multiple neuropils. The optic lobes and mushroom bodies in particular were smaller in the smallest wasps. Furthermore, smaller brains had a relatively smaller total neuropil volume and larger cellular rind than large brains. These changes in relative brain size and brain architecture suggest that the energetic constraints on brain tissue outweigh specific cognitive requirements in small Nasonia wasps.
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