title: Animal behaviour: task differentiation by personality in spider groups.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Group, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK. Electronic address: l.grinsted@sussex.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grinsted
authors.affiliation: Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Group, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bacon
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008954:Models, Biological; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013112:Spiders / Q000502:physiology*