Collective behavior and colony persistence of social spiders depends on their physical environment

Ambika Kamath, Skylar D Primavera, Colin M Wright, Grant N Doering, Kirsten A Sheehy, Noa Pinter-Wollman and Jonathan N Pruitt

Behavioral Ecology, 2019, vol. 30, issue 1, 39-47

Abstract: Human habitat modification can lead animals to experience more variable physical environments. For group-living animals, the physical environment can shape social interactions and, consequently, collective behavior and group persistence. Using both field-based and greenhouse experiments, we find that fence-dwelling colonies of social spiders hunt more effectively and are more likely to persist than tree-dwelling colonies. Thus, variation in the physical environment arising from human habitat modification can suggest new mechanisms for how animal societies function.

Keywords: architecture; foraging; human-induced habitat modification; Stegodyphus dumicola; web (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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