Abstract
Quantitative behavioural analysis of the aggregated, but non-social, spider Metabus gravidus (Araneae: Araneidae) in Costa Rica indicates that food-locating web-movements common to many orb-building spiders have a communicatory function in this species. A hierarchy of behavioural patterns, which includes bouncing, web-jerks, chasing, displacement from orbs, and fighting, serves to defend individual feeding areas and to space out the webs in a colony. Displays vary with the location of the defender and with the size and position of the intruder. Such aggressive communication in orbdefence facilitates colonial web-development in a species for which ease in web-building and preyacquisition promotes a colonial arrangement.
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