PHYSICAL AND THEORETICAL FEATURES IN THE SIMULATION OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR - THE SPIDERS WEB

Artificial intelligence techniques of computational simulation have been applied to the study of the construction of the orb web of Araneus diadematus, the garden cross spider. This paper discusses theoretical and methodological issues raised by this approach to the study of animal construction skills, using the orb-web building of Araneus as an example. Distinctions are drawn between three aspects of animal artifacts and the construction processes that produce them: structural, metrical, and material or physicochemical. Structural features of objects and processes refer to the way they divide into parts; metrical features to their size, extent, or shape; and material features to their physical and chemical properties. It is argued that a fully developed simulation of animal construction skills would require these three aspects to be simulated in an integrated fashion and that the need to include material aspects in particular may place limits on the usefulness of artificial intelligence techniques.