Animal Behaviour: Task Differentiation by Personality in Spider Groups

In social animals, group efficiency is often assumed to increase with task differentiation, but this requires that individuals are better than generalists at the task they specialize in. A new study finds that individual Anelosimus studiosus spiders do predominantly perform the task they excel at, in line with their individual personality type, when they are placed in groups. In social animals, group efficiency is often assumed to increase with task differentiation, but this requires that individuals are better than generalists at the task they specialize in. A new study finds that individual Anelosimus studiosus spiders do predominantly perform the task they excel at, in line with their individual personality type, when they are placed in groups.