Abstract
ABSTRACTA striking feature of web-building spiders is the use of silk to make webs, mainly for prey capture. However, building a web is energetically expensive and increases the risk of predation. To reduce such costs and still have access to abundant prey, some web-building spiders have evolved web invasion behaviour. In general, no consistent patterns of web invasion have emerged and the factors determining web invasion remain largely unexplored. Here we report web invasion among conspecifics in seven nocturnal species of orb-web spiders, and examined the factors determining the probability of webs that could be invaded and taken over by conspecifics. About 36% of webs were invaded by conspecifics, and 25% of invaded webs were taken over by the invaders. A web that was built higher and intercepted more prey was more likely to be invaded. Once a web was invaded, the smaller the size of the resident spider, the more likely its web would be taken over by the invader. This study suggests that web invasion, as a possible way of reducing costs, may be widespread in nocturnal orb-web spiders.
Highlights
Competition is an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another
Our results showed that 36% (28 out of 77) of webs studied were invaded by the conspecifics, and 25% (7 out of 28) of the invaded webs were successfully taken over by the invaders among seven species of orb-web spiders
This study suggests that web invasion may be common in nocturnal orb-web spiders
Summary
Competition is an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Competition occurs in a wide range of generalist predators and is perceived by many researchers to be common among spiders (Lee and Klasing, 2004; Wise, 2006). Research on web invasion in web-building spiders has produced a wide range of results (Eichenberger et al, 2009). A few studies have shown that web invasion rarely occurs in web spiders (Enders, 1974; Wise, 1983), but other biologists propose that web invasion might exist in a wide range of web-building spiders (Christenson, 1984; Riechert and Gillespie, 1986).
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