Abstract
Abstract Ballooning behaviour is a key trait in spiders, generally performed by juveniles, which allows dispersal from short to long distances. Although aerial dispersal can be risky, the avoidance of unsuitable conditions seems to overcome its potential drawbacks. Allocosa senex (Mello-Leitao, 1945) and A. marindia Simo, Lise, Pompozzi & Laborda, 2017 are two sympatric, nocturnal, wolf spiders, inhabitants of sandy freshwater and oceanic coasts of southern South America. We tested ballooning propensity of these species under natural conditions in day (d) and night (n) experiments. We collected adult females of A. senex, A. marindia and Schizocosa malitiosa (Tullgren, 1905) (control group) carrying spiderlings on their backs. We performed trials to test pre-ballooning occurrence of individual spiderlings as follows: 64 for A. senex (30d, 32n), 40 for A. marindia (20d, 20n) and S. malitiosa (31d, 32n). Both Allocosa spp. showed significantly higher frequencies of preballooning than S. malitiosa in both day...
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