Dynamic environments do not appear to constrain spider web building behaviour.

Many laboratory experiments demonstrate how orb-web spiders change the architecture of their webs in response to prey, surroundings and wind loading. The overall shape of the web and a range of other web parameters are determined by frame and anchor threads. In the wild, unlike the lab, the anchor threads are attached to branches and leaves that are not stationary but move, which affects the thread tension field. Here we experimentally test the effect of a moving support structure on the construction behaviour and web-parameters of the garden cross spider Araneus diadematus. We found no significant differences in building behaviour between rigid and moving anchors in total time spent and total distance covered nor in the percentage of the total time spent and distance covered to build the three major web components: radials, auxiliary and capture spirals. Moreover, measured key parameters of web-geometry were equally unaffected. These results call for re-evaluation of common understanding of spider webs as thread tensions are often considered to be a major factor guiding the spider during construction and web-operation.

Web building and silk properties functionally covary among species of wolf spider.

Although phylogenetic studies have shown covariation between the properties of spider major ampullate (MA) silk and web building, both spider webs and silks are highly plastic so we cannot be sure whether these traits functionally covary or just vary across environments that the spiders occupy. As MaSp2-like proteins provide MA silk with greater extensibility, their presence is considered necessary for spider webs to effectively capture prey. Wolf spiders (Lycosidae) are predominantly non-web building, but a select few species build webs. We accordingly collected MA silk from two web-building and six non-web-building species found in semirural ecosystems in Uruguay to test whether the presence of MaSp2-like proteins (indicated by amino acid composition, silk mechanical properties and silk nanostructures) was associated with web building across the group. The web-building and non-web-building species were from disparate subfamilies so we estimated a genetic phylogeny to perform appropriate comparisons. For all of the properties measured, we found differences between web-building and non-web-building species. A phylogenetic regression model confirmed that web building and not phylogenetic inertia influences silk properties. Our study definitively showed an ecological influence over spider silk properties. We expect that the presence of the MaSp2-like proteins and the subsequent nanostructures improves the mechanical performance of silks within the webs. Our study furthers our understanding of spider web and silk co-evolution and the ecological implications of spider silk properties.

Female fecundity and offspring survival are not increased through sexual cannibalism in the spider Larinioides sclopetarius.

Many hypotheses explaining the evolution and maintenance of sexual cannibalism incorporate the nutritional aspect of the consumption of males. Most studies have focused on a fecundity advantage through consumption of a male; however, recent studies have raised the intriguing possibility that consumption of a male may also affect offspring quality. In particular, recent studies suggest prolonged survival for offspring from sexually cannibalistic females. Here, we measured the protein and lipid content of males compared to insect prey (crickets), quantified female nutrient intake of both prey types and finally assessed how sexual cannibalism affects female fecundity and spiderling quality in the orb-web spider Larinioides sclopetarius. We found no evidence that sexual cannibalism increased fecundity when compared to a female control group fed a cricket. Contrary to previous studies, spiderlings from females fed a male showed reduced survival under food deprivation compared to spiderlings from the control group. Offspring from females fed a male also tended to begin web construction sooner. The low lipid content of males compared to crickets may have reduced offspring survival duration. Whether additional proteins obtained through consumption of a male translate to enhanced silk production in offspring requires further investigation.

Extended spider cognition.

There is a tension between the conception of cognition as a central nervous system (CNS) process and a view of cognition as extending towards the body or the contiguous environment. The centralised conception requires large or complex nervous systems to cope with complex environments. Conversely, the extended conception involves the outsourcing of information processing to the body or environment, thus making fewer demands on the processing power of the CNS. The evolution of extended cognition should be particularly favoured among small, generalist predators such as spiders, and here, we review the literature to evaluate the fit of empirical data with these contrasting models of cognition. Spiders do not seem to be cognitively limited, displaying a large diversity of learning processes, from habituation to contextual learning, including a sense of numerosity. To tease apart the central from the extended cognition, we apply the mutual manipulability criterion, testing the existence of reciprocal causal links between the putative elements of the system. We conclude that the web threads and configurations are integral parts of the cognitive systems. The extension of cognition to the web helps to explain some puzzling features of spider behaviour and seems to promote evolvability within the group, enhancing innovation through cognitive connectivity to variable habitat features. Graded changes in relative brain size could also be explained by outsourcing information processing to environmental features. More generally, niche-constructed structures emerge as prime candidates for extending animal cognition, generating the selective pressures that help to shape the evolving cognitive system.

Nocturnal foraging enhanced by enlarged secondary eyes in a net-casting spider.

Animals that possess extreme sensory structures are predicted to have a related extreme behavioural function. This study focuses on one such extreme sensory structure-the posterior median eyes of the net-casting spider Deinopis spinosa. Although past research has implicated the importance of vision in the nocturnal foraging habits of Deinopis, no direct link between vision in the enlarged eyes and nocturnal foraging has yet been made. To directly test the hypothesis that the enlarged posterior median eyes facilitate visually based nocturnal prey capture, we conducted repeated-measures, visual occlusion trials in both natural and laboratory settings. Our results indicate that D. spinosa relies heavily on visual cues detected by the posterior median eyes to capture cursorial prey items. We suggest that the enlarged posterior median eyes benefit D. spinosa not only through increased diet breadth, but also by allowing spiders to remain active solely at night, thus evading predation by diurnal animals.

Short-term responses of spider mites inform mechanisms of maize resistance to a generalist herbivore.

Plants are attacked by diverse herbivorous pests with different host specializations. While host plant resistance influences pest pressure, how resistance impacts the behaviors of generalist and specialist herbivores, and the relationship to resistance, is less well known. Here, we investigated the short-term (< 1 h) behavioral changes of a generalist herbivore, the two-spotted spider mite (TSM), and a specialist herbivore, the Banks grass mite (BGM), after introduction to no-choice Tanglefoot leaf-arenas (2 × 2 cm) of three maize inbred lines (B73, B75, and B96). The widely-used inbred line B73 is susceptible to spider mites, while B75 and B96 are known to be mite resistant, especially to TSM. Video tracking was used to record TSM and BGM walking, probing, feeding, resting, web-building and travel distance on arenas of each line. Mite oviposition was also recorded after 72 h. B75, a resistant line, decreased the feeding behavior (i.e., time) of both mite species compared to B73 (susceptible control) and B96. Moreover, TSM appeared to be sensitive to both resistant lines (B75 and B96) with reduced oviposition, and increased resting and web-building times compared to susceptible B73. In contrast, the specialist BGM showed no difference in oviposition, resting and web-building time across all maize inbred lines. Our findings of quite broad and short-term responses of TSM to B75 and B96 are consistent with a role for constitutive or rapidly induced plant defenses in maize in conferring TSM resistance. Other mechanisms of plant resistance may be needed, however, for defense against specialists like BGM.

Male opportunistic mating increases with intensity of female sexual cannibalism in 3 web-building spiders.

Sexual conflict is common in animals, and female sexual cannibalism represents an extreme form of sexual conflict. Males in many species have evolved a variety of strategies to circumvent or decrease the risk of female sexual cannibalism. Opportunistic mating, by which a male mates with a female when she is disturbed or when she is feeding or undertaking moulting, is one of such kinds of strategies, and widely occurs in many animals, especially in spiders. However, whether the occurrence of male opportunistic mating depends on the intensity of female sexual cannibalism remains largely unexplored. We predicted a positive correlation between them. In this study, we tested this prediction by performing a series of mating trials in the laboratory using 3 species of web-building spiders with different intensities of female sexual cannibalism: Nephila pilipes, Nephilengys malabarensis, and Parasteatoda tepidariorum. We found that the occurrence of male opportunistic mating was positively, though not statistically significantly, correlated with the intensity of female sexual cannibalism, thus supporting our hypothesis. All together, we provide evidence that male opportunistic mating may have evolved to respond to the selection pressure posed by female sexual cannibalism.

Orb-weaving spiders are fewer but larger and catch more prey in lit bridge panels from a natural artificial light experiment.

Artificial light at night is rapidly changing the sensory world. While evidence is accumulating for how insects are affected, it is not clear how this impacts higher trophic levels that feed on insect communities. Spiders are important insect predators that have recently been shown to have increased abundance in urban areas, but have shown mixed responses to artificial light. On a single bridge with alternating artificially lit and unlit sections, I measured changes in the orb-weaving spider Larinioides sclopetarius (Araneidae) web abundance, web-building behavior, prey-capture, and body condition. In artificially lit conditions, spiders caught more prey with smaller webs, and had higher body conditions. However, there were fewer spiders with active webs in those lit areas. This suggests that either spiders were not taking advantage of an ecological insect trap, perhaps due to an increased risk of becoming prey themselves, or were satiated, and thus not as active within these habitats. The results from this natural experiment may have important consequences for both insects and spiders in urban areas under artificial lighting conditions.

The influence of food supply on foraging behaviour in a desert spider.

We tested the alternative hypotheses that foraging effort will increase (energy maximizer model) or decrease (due to increased costs or risks) when food supply increased, using a Namib desert burrowing spider, Seothyra henscheli (Eresidae), which feeds mainly on ants. The web of S. henscheli has a simple geometrical configuration, comprising a horizontal mat on the sand surface, with a variable number of lobes lined with sticky silk. The sticky silk is renewed daily after being covered by wind-blown sand. In a field experiment, we supplemented the spiders' natural prey with one ant on each day that spiders had active webs and determined the response to an increase in prey. We compared the foraging activity and web geometry of prey-supplemented spiders to non-supplemented controls. We compared the same parameters in fooddeprived and supplemented spiders in captivity. The results support the "costs of foraging" hypothesis. Supplemented spiders reduced their foraging activity and web dimensions. They moulted at least once and grew rapidly, more than doubling their mass in 6 weeks. By contrast, food-deprived spiders increased foraging effort by enlarging the diameter of the capture web. We suggest that digestive constraints prevented supplemented spiders from fully utilizing the available prey. By reducing foraging activities on the surface, spiders in a prey-rich habitat can reduce the risk of predation. However, early maturation resulting from a higher growth rate provides no advantage to S. henscheli owing to the fact that the timing of mating and dispersal are fixed by climatic factors (wind and temperature). Instead, large female body size will increase fitness by increasing the investiment in young during the period of extended maternal care.

A spider population in flux: selection and abandonment of artificial web-sites and the importance of intraspecific interactions in Lephthyphantes tenuis (Araneae: Linyphiidae) in wheat.

Lepthyphantes tenuis, a small sheet-webbuilding linyphiid spider is one of the most abundant spider species of cereal fields in Europe. In the present study we examined the process of web-site selection and web-site tenacity by adult females of this species in a winter wheat field. Spiders were selective in their choice of web-site. Different immigration rates into various manipulated web-sites, in field and laboratory, suggested that structural support and suitable micro-climate (high humidity) are the most important factors in the selection. Small holes dug in the ground were the most favoured web-sites. Web-site occupation was influenced by the presence of other conspecific spiders. Territorial contests occurred between spiders attempting to occupy the same web, these almost invariably led to the take-over of the web when the intruder was heavier. Interference, but also a certain level of tolerance, between spiders within the same web-site but in different webs was suggested by direct and indirect evidence. Many holes supported two or even three spiders in vertically stratified webs. Leaving probability of marked spiders was significantly higher in multiply occupied holes than in holes with a single web. Comparison with the results of a no-interference stochastic model showed that multiple occupancy in nature is less frequent than predicted by the model. There was further evidence for weak extra-web-interference between spiders in that multiple occupancy was even less frequent and overall occupancy was lower in web-sites which were packed close to each other. However, a level of tolerance for crowding is shown by the fact that closely packed hole colonies supported a spider density 13 times higher than in natural web-sites in the field. A marking experiment was carried out to gain information on web-site tenacity (i.e. the length of time a spider spends in a web-site) and abandonment. The average duration of tenacity was less than 2 days. A random loss function gave a good fit to the tenacity distribution and suggested that spiders abandoned web-sites randomly with a fixed leaving probability of c. 0.5. Individual webs were often used consecutively by more than one spider, and some spiders built more than one web in the same web-site. Calculations showed that abandonment is the most frequent leaving mode, while take-over by contest between spiders and disappearance due to destruction were some-what less frequent and equally likely modes of ending tenacity. It is suggested that the apparent contradiction between the selectiveness and competitiveness of spiders for web-sites and the relatively short tenacity observed can be resolved by hypothesising that spiders leave websites soon because they apply the strategy of spreading risk: spiders by frequently moving from one web-site to another distribute their reproductive efforts across several localities. This hypothesis is further supported by changes in web-site preference and ballooning behaviour at the onset of the reproductive stage in L. tenuis.