Cooperation and conflicts during prey capture in colonies of the colonial spider Parawixia bistriata (Araneae: Araneidae)

Discovery and Genetic Characterization of Single Cohort Adult Colonies With Male Aggregations, and Preliminary Evidence for Lekking in a Malagasy Kite Spider (Isoxya, Gasteracanthinae)

“…Further, while we did observe single female webs, both adult and juvenile, practically 100% of all colony members in all colonies, barring the two sub-adult females in colony F and the one sub-adult male in colony G, were mature adults, with close to 50/50 sex ratios. Such single-cohort adult colonies with equal sex ratios are highly atypical among either social or colonial spiders (Fowler and Gobbi 1988, Uetz 1989, Wenseleers et al 2013, Quero et al 2020). In such spiders, juveniles may commonly have their webs attached to the colony and standing sex ratios are strongly female biased either due to primary sex-ratio bias (many cooperatively social spiders) or as males are short lived compared to females (colonial and subsocial spiders) (Avilés 1997, Bilde and Lubin 2011).…”

“…sp., as in A. minax they only consisted of up to 13 females. A comparison may also be made with Parawixia bistriata that resembles our new species in having single-cohort colonies, even sex ratios, and relatively low levels of inter-individual aggression (Fowler and Gobbi 1978, Fowler and Gobbi 1988, Campón 2007, Wenseleers et al 2013,, Quero et al 2020). However, available evidence suggests that in this species colonies are typically formed by siblings—perhaps all from a single egg sac—and thus exist from juvenile to adult stages of the spider, followed by dispersal of adults to breed (Fowler and Gobbi 1988).…”

“…Typically, in colonial spiders, individuals defend their own webs, and do not share prey (Lubin 1974, Uetz 1986, Hodge and Uetz 1995. In some species, adults or different cohorts may interact occasionally in the context of cooperative capture of, and feeding on, larger prey (e.g., Parawixia bistriata (Rengger, 1836) (Wenseleers et al 2013, Quero et al 2020. Even in such situations, some level of aggression is typically apparent (e.g., Metabus gravidus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1899) (Buskirk 1975)).…”

Phenotypic plasticity and the colonization of new habitats: a study of a colonial spider in the Chaco region and the Cerrado

“…We examine two possible scenarios. One in which this species originated and evolved in habitats with high prey conditions and the expression of GPC favoured the colonization of habitats with harsher conditions; and the other, in which P. bistriata originated in low prey condition environments with the flexible expression of GPC and later colonized high prey habitats with a later loss of behavioural flexibility in GPC that might have been favoured by the high prey levels and higher costs of aggressive interactions during GPC or by stochastic events (Lubin 1974;Fernández Campón 2007;Yip et al 2017;Quero et al 2020). Following the "high prey level" hypothesis we would expect oldest populations of P. bistriata occurring in mesic habitats and more derived ones in semi-arid environments.…”