Are three-dimensional spider webs defensive adaptations?

Ecology Letters

Volumn 6, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 13-18

  Blackledge, Todd A ^a,c   Coddington, Jonathan A ^b   Gillespie, Rosemary G ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   (United States)

^c Department of Obstetrics Gynecology   (United States)

Author keywords

Adaptive radiation; Araneidae; Key innovation; Linyphiidae; Orb web; Sheet web; Silk; Sphecidae; Theridiidae

Indexed keywords

DEFENSE BEHAVIOR; DIVERSIFICATION; INTERSPECIFIC INTERACTION; SPIDER WEB;

ARANEAE; ARANEIDAE; ARANEOIDEA; LINYPHIIDAE; ORBICULARIA; PLOCEINAE; SPHECIDAE; THERIDIIDAE; VESPIDAE;

EID: 0242668276     PISSN: 1461023X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00384.x     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. Blackledge, T.A. & Pickett, K.M. (2000). Predatory interactions between mud-dauber wasps (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae) and Argiope (Araneae, Araneidae) in captivity. J. Arachnol., 28, 211-216.
2. Blackledge, T.A. & Wenzel, J.W. (2001). Silk mediated defense by an orb web spider against predatory mud-dauber wasps. Behaviour, 138, 155-171.
3. Bohart, R.M. & Menke, A.S. (1976). Sphecid Wasps of the World. University of California Press, Berkeley.
4. Bond, J.E. & Opell, B.D. (1998). Testing adaptive radiation and key innovation hypotheses in spiders. Evolution, 52, 403-414.
5. Bristowe, W.S. (1941). The Comity of Spiders. The Ray Society, London.
6. Burger, J.C., Patten, M.A., Rotenberry, J.T. & Redak, R.A. (1999). Foraging ecology of the California gnatcatcher deduced from fecal samples. Oecologia, 120, 304-310.
7. Coddington, J.A., Griswold, C.E., Silva, D., Peñaranda, E. & Larcher, S.F. (1991). Designing and testing sampling protocols to estimate biodiversity in tropical ecosystems. In: The Unity of Evolutionary Biology: Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (ed. Dudley, E.C.), 2 Volumes. Dioscorides Press, Portland, pp. 44-60.
8. Coddington, J.A. & Levi, H.W. (1991). Systematics and evolution of spiders (Araneae). Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 22, 565-592.
9. Coddington, J.A., Young, L.H. & Coyle, F.A. (1996). Estimating spider species richness in a southern Appalachian cove hardwood forest. J. Arachnol., 24, 111-128.
10. Coville, R.E. (1987). Spider-hunting sphecid wasps. In: Ecophysiology of Spiders (ed. Nentwig, W.). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 309-318.
11. Eberhard, W.G. (1970). The predatory behavior of two wasps, Agenoideus humilis (Pompilidae) and Sceliphron caementarium (Sphecidae), on the orb weaving spider Araneus cornutus (Araneidae). Psyche (Cambridge), 77, 243-251.
12. Ehrlich, P.R. & Raven, P.H. (1964). Butterflies and plants - a study in coevolution. Evolution, 18, 586-608.
13. Elgar, M.A. & Jebb, M. (1999). Nest provisioning in the muddauber wasp Sceliphron laetum (F. Smith): Body mass and taxa specific prey selection. Behaviour, 136, 147-159.
14. Farrell, B.D. & Mitter, C. (1994). Adaptive radiation in insects and plants - time and opportunity. Am. Zool., 34, 57-69.
15. Freeman, B.E. (1980). Population study in Jamaica on adult Sceliphron assimile (Dahlbom) (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Ecol. Entomol., 5, 19-30.
16. Griswold, C.E., Coddington, J.A., Hormiga, G. & Scharff, N. (1998). Phylogeny of the orb-web building spiders (Araneae, Orbiculariae: Deinopoidea, Araneoidea). Zool. J. Linn. Soc. Lond., 123, 1-99.
17. Gunnarsson, B. (1996). Bird predation and vegetation structure affecting spruce-living arthropods in a temperate forest. J. Anim. Ecol., 65, 389-397.
18. Guyer, C. & Slowinski, J.B. (1993). Adaptive radiation and the topology of large phylogenies. Evolution, 47, 253-263.
19. Hormiga, G., Scharff, N. & Coddington, J.A. (2000). The phylogenetic basis of sexual size dimorphism in orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Orbiculariae). Syst. Biol., 49, 435-462.
20. Janetos, A.C. (1982). Foraging tactics of two guilds of web-spinning spiders. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 10, 19-27.
21. Kaston, B.J. (1981). Spiders of Connecticut. State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut, Hartford.
22. McQueen, D.J. (1978). Field studies of growth, reproduction, and mortality in the burrowing wolf spider Geolycosa domifex (Hancock). Can. J. Zool., 56, 2037-2049.
23. Penney, D. (2002). Spiders in Upper Cretaceous amber from New Jersey (Arthropoda, Araneae). Palaeontology, 45, 709-724.
24. Penney, D. & Selden, P.A. (2002). The oldest linyphiid spider, in Lower Cretaceous Lebanese amber (Araneae, Linyphiidae, Linyphiinae). J. Arachnol., 30, in press.
25. Platnick, N.I. (2001). The World Spider Catalog, Version 2.0. American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog81-87/index.html.
26. Polis, G.A., Hurd, S.D., Jackson, C.T. & Sanchez-Pinero, F. (1998). Multifactor population limitation: Variable spatial and temporal control of spiders on Gulf of California Island. Ecology, 79, 490-502.
27. Rayor, L.S. (1997). Attack strategies of predatory wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae; Sphecidae) on colonial orb web-building spiders (Araneidae: Metepeira incrassata). J. Kansas Entomol. Soc., 69, 67-75.
28. Rypstra, A.L. (1984). A relative measure of predation on web-spiders in temperate and tropical forests. Oikos, 43, 129-132.
29. Selden, P.A. (1989). Orb-web weaving spiders in the early Cretaceous. Nature, 340, 711-713.
30. Shear, W.A., ed. (1986). Spiders, Webs, Behavior, and Evolution. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA.
31. Sørensen, L.L., Coddington, J.A. & Scharff, N. (2002). Inventorying and estimating sub-canopy spider diversity using semi-quantitative sampling methods in an Afromontane forest. Environ. Entomol., 31, 319-330.
32. Uetz, G.W. & Hieber, C.S. (1994). Group size and predation risk in colonial web-building spiders: Analysis of attack abatement mechanisms. Behav. Ecol., 5, 326-333.
33. Wise, D.H. & Chen, B. (1999). Vertebrate predation does not limit density of a common forest-floor wolf spider: Evidence from a field experiment. Oikos, 84, 209-214.