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Development and growth in synanthropic species: plasticity and constraints

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Abstract

Urbanization poses serious extinction risks, yet some species thrive in urban environments. This may be due to a pronounced developmental plasticity in these taxa, since phenotypically, plastic organisms may better adjust to unpredictable urban food resources. We studied phenotypic plasticity in Nuctenea umbratica, a common European forest and urban vegetation spider. We subjected spiderlings to low (LF), medium (MF) and high (HF) food treatments and documented their growth and developmental trajectories into adulthood. Spiders from the three treatments had comparable numbers of instars and growth ratios, but differed in developmental periods. Longest developing LF spiders (♀ = 390, ♂ = 320 days) had the smallest adults, but MF (♀ = 300, ♂ = 240 days) and HF (♀ = 240, ♂ = 210 days) spiders reached comparable adult sizes through shorter development. While males and females had comparable instar numbers, females had longer development, higher growth ratios, adult sizes and mass; and while males adjusted their moulting to food availability, female moulting depended on specific mass, not food treatment. We discussed the patterns of Nuctenea sex-specific development and compared our results with published data on two other Holarctic urban colonizers (Larinioides sclopetarius, Zygiella x-notata) exhibiting high plasticity and fast generation turn-over. We conclude that despite relatively unconstrained developmental time in the laboratory enabling Nuctenea to achieve maximal mass and size—main female fitness proxies—their relatively fixed growth ratio and long generation turn-over may explain their lower success in urban environments.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Slovenian Research Agency (grants Z1―4194 and P1―0236).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology, Scientific Research Centre, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Novi trg 2, P. O. Box 306, SI-1001, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Simona Kralj-Fišer, Tatjana Čelik, Tjaša Lokovšek & Matjaž Kuntner

  2. Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, University of Primorska, Glagoljaška 8, SI-6000, Koper, Slovenia

    Simona Kralj-Fišer

  3. Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Klavdija Šuen

  4. Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia, Hajdrihova 28 c, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Rebeka Šiling

  5. Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, NHB-105, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20013-7012, USA

    Matjaž Kuntner

  6. Centre for Behavioural Ecology & Evolution, College of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China

    Matjaž Kuntner

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  1. Simona Kralj-Fišer
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  2. Tatjana Čelik
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  3. Tjaša Lokovšek
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  4. Klavdija Šuen
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  5. Rebeka Šiling
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Correspondence to Simona Kralj-Fišer.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Kralj-Fišer, S., Čelik, T., Lokovšek, T. et al. Development and growth in synanthropic species: plasticity and constraints. Naturwissenschaften 101, 565–575 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1194-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1194-y

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