Abstract
An animals' habitat defines the resources that are available for its use, such as host plants or food sources, and the use of these resources are critical for optimizing fitness. Spiders are abundant in all terrestrial habitats and are often associated with vegetation, which may provide structure for anchoring capture webs, attract insect prey, or provide protective function. Social spiders construct sedentary communal silk nests on host plants, but we know little about whether and how they make nest-site decisions. We examined host plant use in relation to host plant availability in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola Pocock, 1898 (Eresidae) across different arid biomes in Namibia and analysed the role of host plant characteristics (height, spines, scent, sturdiness) on nest occurrence. Host plant communities and densities differed between locations. Spider nests were relatively more abundant on Acacia spp., Boscia foetida, Combretum spp., Dichrostachys cinerea, Parkinsonia africana, Tarchonanthus camphoratus, and Ziziphus mucronatus, and nests survived longer on preferred plant genera Acacia, Boscia and Combretum. Spider nests were relatively more abundant on plants higher than 2 m, and on plants with thorns and with a rigid structure. Our results suggest that spiders display differential use of host plant species, and that characteristics such as rigidity and thorns confer benefits such as protection from browsing animals.
Highlights
The optimal use of resources within an animal’s habitat is critical for maximizing fitness [1,2]
At Otavi, we found relatively more nests on Acacia hebeclada, A. mellifera, Combretum hereroense, C. imberbe, Dichrostachys cinerea and Ziziphus mucronata (Figure 2b), and nest presence was affected by plant species (χ2 = 106.84, df = 39, p < 0.001)
At Betta and Warmbad, most of the nests were found on Acacia erioloba, Boscia foetida and Parkinsonia africana (Figure 2c,d), and again we detected a non-random pattern of nest occurrence (Betta: χ2 = 16.625, df = 6, p < 0.01, and Warmbad: χ2 = 54.99, df = 11, p < 0.001)
Summary
The optimal use of resources within an animal’s habitat is critical for maximizing fitness [1,2]. ‘Habitat use’ can be defined as ‘the way an animal uses’ resources of its habitat, for example the use of vegetation or food sources [2]. The selection process results in preferential use of specific habitat components [2,3], for example preference for occupying specific host plant species. Habitat use can affect the fitness of an animal in various ways, for example, through reducing interspecific competition, facilitating maximized feeding activity, and minimizing predation risk [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Organisms have to deal with extreme ecological conditions such as high temperature fluctuations and low precipitation
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