Adventures in Time and Space: What Shapes Behavioural Decisions in Drosophila melanogaster?

Variation in behaviour can be observed both between individuals, based on their condition and experience as well as between populations due to sources of heterogeneity in the environment. These behavioural differences have evolved as a result of natural and sexual selection where different strategies may be favoured depending on the costs and benefits associated with those behaviours. In this thesis I examine two sources of heterogeneity within the environment and their behavioural consequences: how spatial complexity mediates sexual selection over time, and how inter and intraspecific signals and individual condition influence social oviposition behaviour. By increasing spatial complexity, we were able to manipulate male-female interaction rate which in turn influenced courtship behaviour and male-induced harm, the consequence of this was an increase in female fecundity especially in the later days of the assay and no change in offspring fitness. These results supported the idea that spatial complexity is able to mediate sexual selection through decreased harm to females. Oviposition decisions are of high consequence to an individual’s fitness and can be shaped by many environmental conditions. Instead of expending energy to evaluate all their different costs and benefits of the conditions of potential oviposition sites females can chose to rely on the signals left by others, in this case it would be beneficial for females to identify signals most like themselves. While we found females oviposited with individuals of the same species and diet, when given the option they showed more interest in and laid more eggs on media that previously held virgin males, bringing into question many assumptions of copying behaviour. In Drosophila melanogaster the only control females have over their offspring is who they mate with and where they oviposit their eggs, thus, these two factors can have a long-lasting impact on individual fitness for future generations. It is also important to consider how the standard lab environment may be shaping these behaviours, and the consequences this has for the evolutionary trajectory of lab populations

Organisational Memetics?: Organisational Learning as a Selection Process

Companies are not only systems created and controlled by those who manage them but also self-organising entities that evolve through learning. Whereas an organism is a creation of natural replicators, genes, an organisation can be seen as a product of an alternative replicator, the meme or mental model, acting, like a gene, to preserve itself in an Evolutionary Stable System. The result is an organisation which self organises around a set of unspoken and unwritten rules and assumptions. Biological evolution is stimulated by environmental change and reproductive isolation; the process of punctuated equilibrium. Corporate innovation shows the same pattern. Innovations in products and processes occur in groups isolated from prevailing mental norms. Successful organic strains possess a genetic capability for adaptation. Organisations which wish to foster learning can develop an equivalent, mental capability. Unlike their biological counterparts they can exert conscious choice and puncture the memetic codes that seek to keep them stable; the mental models of individuals, and the strategies, paradigms and unwritten rules at the company level