Abstract
Nearly all social spiders spin prey-capture webs, and many of the benefits proposed for sociality in spiders, such as cooperative prey capture and reduced silk costs, appear to depend on a mutually shared web. The social huntsman spider, Delena cancerides (Sparassidae), forms colonies under bark with no capture web, yet these spiders remain in tightly associated, long-lasting groups. To investigate how the absence of the web may or may not constrain social evolution in spiders, we observed D. cancerides colonies in the field and laboratory for possible cooperative defense and foraging benefits. We observed spiders’ responses to three types of potential predators and to prey that were introduced into retreats. We recorded all natural prey capture over 447 h both inside and outside the retreats of field colonies. The colony’s sole adult female was the primary defender of the colony and captured most prey introduced into the retreat. She shared prey with younger juveniles about half the time but never with older subadults. Spiders of all ages individually captured and consumed the vast majority of prey outside the retreat. Young spiders benefited directly from maternal defense and prey sharing in the retreat. However, active cooperation was rare, and older spiders gained no foraging benefit by remaining in their natal colony. D. cancerides does not share many of the benefits of group living described in other web-building social spiders. We discuss other reasons why this species has evolved group living.
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Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by the Australian–American Fulbright Association and from The National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship. Dr. David Rowell, of the Australian National University, has been exceptionally generous in sharing his knowledge, laboratory, and system. We thank the administrative and technical staff of the Research School of Biology, Evolution, Ecology, and Genetics at ANU for their gracious accommodation. We thank Dr. Thomas D. Seeley and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on improving the manuscript. Thanks to Dr. Ajay Narendra for identifying bulldog ants and David Hirst for identifying solitary huntsman. Leo Stellwag helped in retreat window construction. Jenna DeNicola fed and maintained captive spiders at Cornell University.
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Yip, E.C., Rayor, L.S. Do social spiders cooperate in predator defense and foraging without a web?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 1935–1947 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1203-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1203-5