Abstract
Web spiders rely on vibrations propagated via their web to identify, locate and capture entangled prey. Here, we experimentally tested the robustness of the orb weaver's predation strategy when webs are severely distorted and silk tensions are drastically altered throughout the web, a common occurrence in the wild. We assessed prey identification efficiency by comparing the spider's initial reaction times towards a fruit fly trapped in the web, we measured location efficiency by comparing times and number of tugging bouts performed, and we determined capture efficiency by comparing capture times. It emerged that spiders are capable of identifying, locating and capturing prey in distorted webs, albeit taking somewhat longer to do so.
Highlights
Studies of animal communication using substrate vibrations are beginning to uncover interesting and important features associated with this form of information transfer
Given the adaptability of the various silks involved, spiders have ample options to adjust their webs during construction including self-tuning by key silks through interactions with environmental conditions like relative humidity (Rhisiart and Vollrath 1994; Vollrath et al 1997; Vollrath 1999)
All our A. diadematus performed the standard actions of orientation, radial tugging and dashing towards the fruit fly with an example of a spider capturing its prey provided in Movie 2
Summary
Studies of animal communication using substrate vibrations (known as biotremology) are beginning to uncover interesting and important features associated with this form of information transfer. It appears that vibration sensing is far from the exception and is common in both invertebrate and vertebrate animal taxa (Hill et al 2019; Cividini and Montesanto 2020). Because the propagation of vibrations is affected by silk tension (Eberhard 1981; Barth and Geethabali 1982; Barth 1985; Mortimer et al 2014, 2016), it is stands to reason that post-construction web distortion impacts the efficiency with which spiders use vibrations for prey capture. (Turner et al 2011) found that prey capture times increased in windy conditions and thereby demonstrated that minimising capture times is important for spiders
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