Foraging strategies in orb‐spinning spiders: Ambient light and silk decorations in <i>Argiope aetherea</i> Walckenaer (Araneae: Araneoidea)

Elgar, Mark A.; Allan, Rachel A.; Evans, Theodore A.

doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.1996.tb00633.x

Cited by 44 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Building stabilimenta may attract more prey, thus increasing foraging e¤ciency (Craig & Bernard 1990;Elgar et al 1996;Tso 1996Tso , 1998Watanabe 1999), or reduce the risk of predation (Robinson & Robinson 1970;Eisner & Nowicki 1983;Blackledge 1998a,b;Blackledge & Wenzel 1999). To increase their foraging success by building stabilimenta to attract prey and, at the same time, reduce the risk of predation, spiders must have strategies to balance the trade-o¡.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Why these spiders, but not others, include stabilimenta in their webs has been debated for more than a century (Simon 1895). Although many functional hypotheses have been proposed for silk stabilimenta, the most recent and plausible, but also contentious, hypotheses are the prey-attraction hypothesis (Craig & Bernard 1990;Elgar et al 1996;Tso 1996Tso , 1998Watanabe 1999) and the predator-defence hypothesis (Horton 1980;Eisner & Nowicki 1983;Schoener & Spiller 1992;Kerr 1993;Blackledge 1998a;Blackledge & Wenzel 1999). Interestingly, both hypotheses have used the fact that stabilimenta have a bright re£ectance across wavelengths of light visible to some animals, including ultraviolet (UV) light (Craig & Bernard 1990), to argue that stabilimenta act as visual signals that make webs more conspicuous either to prey or to predators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stabilimenta attract unwelcome predators to orb–webs

Seah

2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Conspicuous behaviour exposes animals to predation; prey-attraction thus often con£icts with antipredator behaviour. The fact that a conspicuous ultraviolet-light re£ecting silken structure in the orb-webs of certain spider species, known as a stabilimentum, makes the webs obvious to both prey and predators has been used to argue that spiders bene¢t from building stabilimenta by attracting prey and/or defending against visually hunting predators. Here, we provide experimental evidence that stabilimenta can act as visual signals that attract web-invading spider-eating predators with acute vision to the webs. We also show that the predators can learn to remember a particular type of stabilimentum. Thus, stabilimentum-building spiders risk a high level of predation by attracting visually hunting predators.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stabilimenta attract unwelcome predators to orb–webs

Seah

2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…After removing the front and back covers from the stabilimentum decoration on the web of the wasp spider, Argiope bruennichi, actually increased the foraging success, because the web decorations reflected UV light similar to that of UV-reflecting flowers and thus, attracted insect pollinators seeking flower nectar (Kim et al 2012). The results of several studies done on the Araneid genus Argiope have offered the support for the prey-attraction hypothesis: A. trifasciata (Tso 1996), A. aetherea (Elgar et al 1996), A. appensa (Hauber 1998), A. aurantia (Tso 1998), A. keyserlingi (Herberstein 2000, Bruce et al 2001, A. versicolor (Li 2005), and A. savignyi (Gálvez 2009). …”

Section: Web Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 66%

Individual physical variables involved in the stabilimentum decoration in the wasp spider, Argiope bruennichi

Kim

2015

J. Ecol. Environ.

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The physical factors of Argiope bruennichi (Araneae, Araneidae) that influence the stabilimentum decoration on the web, a conspicuous white silk structure reflecting much more ultraviolet light than other spider silks in the web, have been poorly understood. In this study, individual variables involved in decorating the webs with stabilimenta by A. bruennichi were examined. The results revealed that the physical condition of the female A. bruennichi affected the behaviors of the stabilimentum decoration on the web. Among the 82 female spiders building their webs, the 49 female spiders adding upper and lower stabilimenta on their web weighed less, and had a narrower cephalothorax and shorter abdomen than the 33 female spiders that did not use stabilimentum. The heavier females decorated their webs with stabilimentum of greater widths. There were also significant positive relationships between the stabilimentum area and the female spider's cephalothorax width, and between the stabilimentum area and female spider's abdomen length. Taken together, this study suggests that spiders allocate their resources in stabilimentum decoration as a functional response to the spider's physical conditions, and also supports the "prey-attraction hypothesis," which states that the use of stabilimentum increases the foraging success by attracting more prey to the web.

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“…However, recent research has revealed that web-building spiders adjust their foraging behaviour according to local conditions by modifying the architecture and size of the web (e.g. Elgar et al 1996;Herberstein et al 1999) and their decisions on whether to capture or leave prey items (e.g. Herberstein et al 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging behaviour and the risk of predation in the black house spider, Badumna insignis (Desidae)

Henderson¹,

Elgar²

1999

Aust. J. Zool.

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Many animals adjust their behaviour according to the presence or threat of predators. However, the foraging behaviour of sit-and-wait predators is typically thought to be inflexible to short-term changes in the environment. Here we investigate the foraging behaviour of the nocturnally active black house spider, Badumna insignis. Experiments in which different kinds of prey were introduced into the web during either the day or night indicated that the foraging success of Badumna is compromised by behaviours that reduce the risk of predation. During the day, spiders generally remain within the retreat and take longer to reach the prey, which may reduce their foraging success. In contrast, spiders sat exposed at the edge of the retreat at night, and from here could usually reach the prey before it escaped. The spiders were able to escape from a model predator more rapidly if they were at the edge of the retreat than if they were out on the web. These data suggest that the costs to Badumna of reduced fecundity through poor foraging efficiency may be outweighed by the benefits of reducing the risk of predation

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Foraging strategies in orb‐spinning spiders: Ambient light and silk decorations in Argiope aetherea Walckenaer (Araneae: Araneoidea)

Cited by 44 publications

References 15 publications

Stabilimenta attract unwelcome predators to orb–webs

Stabilimenta attract unwelcome predators to orb–webs

Individual physical variables involved in the stabilimentum decoration in the wasp spider, Argiope bruennichi

Foraging behaviour and the risk of predation in the black house spider, Badumna insignis (Desidae)

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