Spider Behaviour: Flexibility and Versatility

by Edited by Marie Elisabeth Herberstein

• ISBN13: 9780521765299
• ISBN10: 0521765293
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Spiders are often underestimated as suitable behavioural models because of the general belief that due to their small brains their behaviour is innate and mostly invariable. Challenging this assumption, this fascinating book shows that rather than having a limited behavioural repertoire, spiders show surprising cognitive abilities, changing their behaviour to suit their situational needs. The team of authors unravels the considerable intra-specific as well as intra-individual variability and plasticity in different behaviours ranging from foraging and web building to communication and courtship. An introductory chapter on spider biology, systematics and evolution provides the reader with the necessary background information to understand the discussed behaviours and helps to place them into an evolutionary context. Highlighting an under-explored area of behaviour, this book will provide new ideas for behavioural researchers and students unfamiliar with spiders as well as a valuable resource for those already working in this intriguing field.

Author Biography

Marie Elisabeth Herberstein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University, Sydney. Her research investigates a range of behaviours in spiders, such as web building, learning, mating (including sexual cannibalism) and the use of deceptive signals.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. viii
How this book came about	p. xi
spider biology	p. 1
Scope of this book	p. 1
Spider biology	p. 2
The evolutionary history of spiders	p. 17
Conclusion	p. 21
Flexibility in the foraging strategies of spiders	p. 31
Introduction	p. 31
Investments required by extra-oral digestion	p. 33
Silk use, behavioural categories and predatory versatility	p. 35
Flexibility based on chemoreception	p. 36
Flexibility based on vision	p. 38
Searching for sensory-modality trade-offs	p. 40
From aggressive mimicry to mind games	p. 41
Araneophagic salticids	p. 44
Ambushing spiders on tree trunks	p. 46
Plants as spider food	p. 47
Conclusions and outlook	p. 48
Spider webs: evolution, diversity and plasticity	p. 57
Webs, silks and decorations	p. 57
Genetic basis for variation	p. 70
Plasticity in web building	p. 75
Conclusions and outlook	p. 85
Flexible use of anti-predator defences	p. 99
Introduction	p. 99
The predators of spiders	p. 100
Camouflage	p. 101
Masquerade	p. 102
Limb loss as flexible secondary defence	p. 104
Aposematism and Batesian mimicry	p. 105
Practising safe sex in the presence of predators	p. 108
Flexible defence in webs	p. 110
Predator-specific refinement of prey sensory ability	p. 111
Ecotypic variation in predator-identification ability	p. 114
Blurring the distinction between foraging and anti-predator defence	p. 116
Conclusions and outlook	p. 117
Communication	p. 127
Introduction	p. 127
Semiochemicals	p. 129
Acoustic signals	p. 143
Visual signals	p. 156
Multimodal signals	p. 162
Social interactions	p. 164
Conclusion and outlook	p. 165
Deceptive signals in spiders	p. 190
The evolution of deceptive signals	p. 190
Deception via colour	p. 191
Deception via scent	p. 199
Deception via vibrations	p. 202
Conclusions and outlook	p. 207
Mating behaviour and sexual selection	p. 215
Introduction	p. 215
Mate attraction and approach	p. 216
Mating	p. 233
Consequences of polyandry	p. 241
Conclusions and outlook	p. 255
Group Iiving in spiders: cooperative Dreeding and coloniality	p. 275
Introducing group-living spiders	p. 276
Subsocial spiders, and the subsocial route to cooperative sociality	p. 278
Cooperative social spiders	p. 279
Conclusions and outlook - social spiders	p. 288
Colonial spiders	p. 290
Conclusions and outlook - colonial spiders	p. 298
Plasticity, learning and cognition	p. 307
Overview	p. 307
Predation	p. 308
Interactions with other animals	p. 319
Spatial learning and navigation	p. 323
Heat aversion	p. 329
Environmental enrichment	p. 330
The Deurobiological basis of learning	p. 330
Conclusions and outlook	p. 333
Kleptoparasitic spiders of the subfamily Argyrodinae: a special case of behavioural plasticity	p. 348
Introduction	p. 348
Phytogeny and the flexibility of Argyrodinae foraging behaviours	p. 350
Argyrodinae and webs	p. 361
Flexibility of kleptoparasitic behaviours	p. 363
Flexibility of araneophagic behaviours	p. 369
Sociality and foraging behaviours	p. 371
Competition for mates and mating behaviour	p. 374
Conclusions and outlook	p. 379
Index	p. 387
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