Associative penultimate female (left) guarded by a marked male (see Watson 1990).In my work on metabolic capacities of male sierra dome spiders, measured respirometrically during the spider's elaborate and strenuous ritual of copulatory courtship, I have found that both metabolic efficiency (microwatts consumed per unit of courtship performance) and maximum metabolic rate (sustainable aerobic capacity) are positively selected by females. Two overt male traits independently predict fertilization success, body mass and copulatory vigor (measured as intromission rate - the number of separate genitalic connections made by the male per unit time during copulatory courtship). Metabolic efficiency is correlated with male body mass (even after compensating for the expected allometric relationship) and aerobic capacity with copulatory vigor. Interestingly, due to some fundamental physiological tradeoff (maybe to do with accelerating rates of oxygen free-radicals with increasing metabolic rates) efficiency and maximum metabolic rate are negatively correlated in the general male population. By simultaneously selecting positively for both of these traits, females are effectively shopping for the least negative tradeoff between these two viability-enhancing physiological traits. In other words, by cross-referencing body mass and courtship performance, females are sexually selecting for metabolic power: the maximum rate at which the male can perform useful metabolic work (as opposed, for example, to "work" wasting calories in the production of heat or unnecessary movement).

My respirometric studies also suggest that males sierra domes that are more sexually competitive early in life, have more rapid rates of physiological senescence (as measured by their resting and active metabolic rates). Rates of aging of prospective sires may be a major issue for female sierra dome spiders. In my study population, variable proportions (up to 85 percent!) of gravid females die each year just before they are able to oviposit. They apparently succumb just a bit too early to a rickettsial disease, but their susceptibility may be related to their level of senescence. While a given female's sons can hope to reproduce early in adult life, and so not have their reproductive fitness threatened by the sexual competitiveness/senescence rate tradeoff, daughters may be reproductively crippled by genes received from of a rapidly aging father because females always need to live long to have a chance to yolk up a sizeable clutch of eggs. Early reproduction is not an option for females, so they cannot easily escape the competitiveness/senescence rate tradeoff. Thus, to protect their daughters, female sierra dome spiders may need to resist always mating with only the most sexually impressive males in the population, especially early in the mating season before the ravages of aging have taken their toll on the superstuds of the population.

I also have a longstanding interest in human evolutionary psychology.

I am developing material for a book exploring implications of a Darwinian analysis of human psychology for psychotherapeutic methodologies. My most detailed work in this domain, with Dr. P.W. Andrews, addresses the possible adaptive functions evolution of unipolar depression. I presented the "social niche change model" of depression to the Human Behavior and Evolution Society and, as an invited keynote address, to the Across Species Comparisons and Psychopathology (ASCAP) group, in July 1998. Another keynote address was invited by The Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry and given at their regional New York City meeting on Evolutionary Theory and Psychopathology, in November 1999. A paper on this topic has recently been published in the Journal of Affective Disorders (October 2002; v. 72, pp. 1-14; get PDF).

A lifelong special interest concerns how insights from evolutionary psychology may critically, practically, and constructively illuminate the "sacred psychologies" and introspective methods of great contemplative traditions such as Zen Buddhism, Sufism and Gnostic Christianity. In his book "Consilience," E.O. Wilson writes, "Consider this rule of thumb: To the extent that philosophical positions both confuse and close doors to further inquiry, they are likely to be wrong." Serious scientists everywhere readily embrace this attitude. I contend that this attitude also long has been a cornerstone of genuine spiritual work - a radically empirical, scientific, albiet personal activity that vastly predates western science. For more on this, click here to see the description of my workshops at the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California.

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CONSULTING
I accept consulting engagements on behalf of individuals, organizations, and professionals. My consulting interests are wide-ranging, but center on evolutionary biological analyses of animal and human social or reproductive behavior. I can provide insightful information in many areas of animal behavior, including the behavior of insects and spiders, and diverse behavior problems of pets, especially dogs.

My greatest consulting interests concern human behavior and emotional experience, especially the analysis of psychological pain and distress. My insights are derived from integrated perspectives of human evolutionary psychology and eastern and western spiritual traditions. I am not a qualified mental health care professional, and do not provide psychotherapeutic or other mental health care services. But, I can provide insights into various psychological states and conditions that may enrich one's self-understanding, potentiate a relationship with a licensed therapist, or help one decide on a psychotherapeutic approach. My speciality in the area of human psychological pain is unipolar depression. Initial consults up to one-half hour by phone or email are free. Contact me via email.

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This page was last (partially) updated 29 July 2008