Crowding leads to fitness benefits and reduced dispersal in a colonial spider

Lior Ventura, Deborah R Smith and Yael Lubin

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 5, 1384-1392

Abstract: Lay SummaryCrowding is usually detrimental, but not necessarily for species that cluster in groups. In a colonial web-building spider, individuals had a lower tendency to disperse away from dense groups than from sparse groups. Spiders gained more weight on average in denser groups, although not all spiders within the colony benefited equally from the prey. The positive group effect was strongest when prey were abundant, suggesting that group-living is beneficial in prey-rich sites.

Keywords: Cyrtophora citricola; density dependence; dispersal; group-living; prey capture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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