Animals range widely in body size and they also vary in shape. Are there fundamental factors that play a strong role in the evolution of animal body structure? Do brains play an outsized role in the evolution of body structure?

Collaborative research with Alexel Polilov explores the allometry (body size relationships) of the major organ systems using insects as models. Sampling across five orders of magnitude in size, we show that brain are unique: among organ systems brains remain relatively large as bodies evolve to smaller sizes.

We are testing how brain investment may affect body shape, largely via impacting relative head size. We are testing how the need to house brains may constrain the evolution of animal shape via effects on relative head volume.  

Paper wasp species vary in colony size, mode of colony founding, nest architecture, and in the degree of queen-worker caste differentiation. We are exploring how species differences in behavior and development, such as nest architecture and caste determination, have affected the evolution of the amount of investment in functionally distinct brain regions. The family Vespidae ranges from solitary species, through species with small simple societies, to those with large and complex colonies. We are quantifying how the evolution of social behavior affected brain investment, leading to developing new theory on brain/behavior relationships in the form of adjustments to the social brain hypothesis. Much of this work has focused on paper wasps, but we are making parallel inquiries using social spiders.