Foraging strategies ofEriophora transmarinaandNephila plumipes(Araneae: Araneoidea): Nocturnal and diurnal orb‐weaving spiders

Abstract

AbstractThe foraging behaviour, web characteristics and prey availability of two sympatric orb‐weaving spiders,Nephila plumipesandEriophora transmarina(Araneae: Araneoidea), are compared. The spiders are similarly sized but have different temporal foraging patterns.Nephila plumipesspins a relatively permanent web and captures most of its prey during the day.Eriophora transmarinaonly forages at night, spinning a new web every night and usually dismantling it at dawn. These different foraging activities are most likely to be responsible for the observed differences in the types and rates of prey capture:E. transmarinacaptured mostly Lepidoptera that were more abundant at night than during the day, whileN. plumipescaptured mostly Hymenoptera that were more abundant during the day than at night. While nocturnalE. transmarinahave less time available for foraging than the diurnalN. plumipes, the former has a substantially higher nocturnal prey capture rate. We argue that the difference between the species in their prey capture rates are likely to be due to differences in the architecture of their webs.