imadjidov's blog

Bateman’s principle states that variance in reproductive success is greater in males than females. Females always invest more energy to produce their offspring. Sperm are cheaper than eggs. Males reproductive success is limited by the number of mates. Female reproductive success is limited by how many eggs she can produce. This results in sexual selection in which males compete with each other. And females become choosy in which males to choose. As a result of Bateman’s principle, the predictions follow; males should try to mate with as many females as possible and should compete with other males for female attention. Females should try to choose the best mates. In addition, we expect higher variance in reproductive success in males compared to females. 

• The reflection assignment helped me build self-awareness of all the projects I conducted during the semester. This assignment helped me take my time and ask my self some important questions regarding my writing process. By doing this, I gained a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. 

• I would like to end by writing a quick note to say that I enjoyed your class.  I always learned something that challenged my scientific writing perspectives and enjoyed doing so! Thank you, again, for such a wonderful learning experience, and good luck in your new class.

• I was excited about conducting my project in the class. Thanks to my team, I had a great time conducting and completing my research project. The research project had us divided into teams to figure out a scientific question. Our work was performed outside of class. Furthermore, the project was one of the most important activities for me because it allowed me to creatively apply scientific and technical practices to use. The semester project has allowed me to learn about the process that goes into creating a science project. Such skills will definitely help me in the future to solve my own research problems. 

• My team wrote about hox genes. I found it difficult to choose a scientific project regarding hox genes. At first, I was confused about how the project was going to go forward, but my team managed to work on the project early and turn it in on time. Similar to the methods project, the proposed project will help me write a proposal for my honor’s thesis. Although the two will not share the same topics, I have learned about the process regarding writing a scientific proposal. Things to keep in mind are to avoid wordiness and use an active voice when writing scientific work. 

• In my methods project, I constructed a complete multi-panel scientific figure of finding an evidence of phytophagy. In my project, I constructed a complete figure that showed care and attention to detail. My title was appropriate for the manuscript. I have learned to keep paragraph content aligned with my topic sentence, to avoid hypotheticals, and to use consistent terminology. Such skills will help me write my honors thesis this coming semester. 

• I thought that the perfect paragraph would be graded based on my grammar. For this reason, I subscribed for a semester-long Grammarly website. I did not realize that my classmates would comment on my writing. Their comments helped me learn basic grammar rules and helped me improve my writing. I think that I got better each week, I posted my perfect paragraphs. At first, it was a bit difficult correcting my drafts and then posting my perfect paragraph. However, with a little bit of practice each week, I have gained the necessary skills to effectively write every day and fix my grammar mistakes. Such skills will be beneficial in the future, such as graduate school.  

• Before writing the drafts, I had not realized that writing every day would have been beneficial. More often I wrote I got better at transferring my thoughts into my writing. I wrote about things when being impressed by something, when events inspired me and I knew that I wanted to remember them or analyze them. It so happened that it’s easier for me to analyze when I write down thoughts, rather than keeping them in my head. Although I do not plan to write every day, the draft assignments have helped me improve my writing thought process. Such skills will be beneficial in the future, such as graduate school. 

Behavioral experiments have shown that the principal and secondary eyes work together to precisely target moving stimuli. For example, Dr. Beth Jakob and colleagues investigated how the secondary anterior lateral eyes direct the principal eyes of Phidippus audaxwhen tracking moving objects. Phidippus audaxwere tethered in front of an eye-tracker that recorded the movement of the principal eye retinas. When spiders with their anterior lateral eyes unmasked were shown a moving disk, the principal eye retinas moved close together and were able to track it. Meanwhile, masked spiders were unable to track moving disks with their principal eye retinas. This indicated that principal eyes can precisely target moving stimuli only with the guidance of the secondary eyes (Jakob et al., 2018). Furthermore, Cupiennius salei, a wandering spider from the family Ctenidae, has also been shown to have closely cooperating principal and secondary eyes. Cupiennius saleihave moveable principal eyes that are controlled by four muscles (Kaps, 1996) (Land, 1969). Masking the Cupiennius saleisecondary eyes reduced their principal eye movement (Neuhofer et al., 2009). 

Behavioral experiments have shown that the principal and secondary eyes work together to precisely target moving stimuli. For example, Dr. Beth Jakob and colleagues investigated how the secondary anterior lateral eyes direct the principal eyes of Phidippus audaxwhen tracking moving objects. Phidippus audaxwere tethered in front of an eye-tracker that recorded the movement of the principal eye retinas. When spiders with their anterior lateral eyes unmasked were shown a moving disk, the principal eye retinas moved close together and were able to track it. Meanwhile, masked spiders were unable to track moving disks with their principal eye retinas. This indicated that principal eyes can precisely target moving stimuli only with the guidance of the secondary eyes (Jakob et al., 2018). Furthermore, Cupiennius salei, a wandering spider from the family Ctenidae, has also been shown to have closely cooperating principal and secondary eyes. Cupiennius saleihave moveable principal eyes that are controlled by four muscles (Kaps, 1996) (Land, 1969). Masking the Cupiennius saleisecondary eyes reduced their principal eye movement (Neuhofer et al., 2009). 

All spider families for which data exist have movable principal eyes. However, the size and motility of the principal eyes vary greatly. Jumping spiders can move their retinas in all directions, whereas other families are capable only of very small lateral movements. In addition, the amount of overlap in the field of view between the principal and secondary eyes varies across families. Small principal eyes with a wide range of motion, such as in jumping spiders, depend on information gathered by the secondary eyes to be directed to a target. I predict that these families will invest more in visual pathway neuropils and in the number of optical glomeruli. In families with larger principal eye retinas with wider fields of view and less motility, information from the secondary eyes may be less important. This may lead to less investment in visual pathway neuropils and a decrease in the number of optical glomeruli.