Relationship between body colour and microhabitat breadth in an orb-web spider

Abstract

Abstract Habitat use often differs among intraspecific individuals, and the degree to which individual animals use specific habitats, i.e. microhabitat breadth, can also vary. Variation in body colour sometimes emerges as dark vs. bright coloration, which can be related to habitat selectivity. The aim of this study was to examine whether darker animals prefer shady sites to avoid overheating from direct sunlight exposure, whereas brighter animals would use both shady and open sites. Orb-web spiders, Cyclosa argenteoalba, have a silver dorsal abdomen with black markings; the proportion of these black markings varies between 20 and 100% among individuals. In summer, there was less variation in the duration of direct sunlight hitting the webs of darker spiders compared with that of brighter spiders. This indicated a narrower microhabitat range for darker spiders, which preferred shady sites. This pattern was not observed in spring and autumn, when thermal conditions were less severe. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that when the temperature is high, darker animals are microhabitat specialists, whereas brighter animals are generalists. A previous study found that darker spiders capture more prey than brighter spiders, and the amount of black markings is considered to be a trade-off between foraging success and microhabitat availability.