Abstract
Members of the genera Uloborus, Hyptiotes, and Miagrammopes have similar web-monitoring postures, but very different webs and tactics for monitoring them. Orb weavers of the genus Uloborus construct horizontal webs and hang from their hubs, whereas reduced-web uloborids construct vertical webs and monitor them from a single thread. To determine if changes in spider strength accompanied web reduction, resting and maximum force measurements were taken of a developmental series of Hyptiotes cavatus, Uloborus glomosus, Miagrammopes animotus, Miagrammopes pinopus, and an undescribed Costa Rican Miagrammopes using a glass needle strain gauge. Both carapace length and spider weight were used as indexes of spider size. Regression analyses of forces show that H. cavatus exerts the greatest relative force and Miagrammopes species the least. This is consistent with requirements for the operation of each web type: Hyptiotes cavatus tenses its entire triangular web and suddenly releases this tension when a prey strikes its web, whereas a Miagrammopes species jerks a single thread that has captured a prey. Within the genus Miagrammopes, the species with the most highly modified carapace expressed the greatest resting force.
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