Open AccessThe material cost and stickiness of capture threads and the evolution of orb‐weaving spiders
Author(s) -
Opell Brent D.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
biological journal of the linnean society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.906
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1095-8312
pISSN - 0024-4066
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8312.1997.tb01635.x
Subject(s) - spider , orb (optics) , thread (computing) , weaving , biology , adhesive , ecology , computer science , zoology , materials science , composite material , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics) , operating system , layer (electronics)
Prey capture threads are essential to the operation of spider orb‐webs because they prevent insects that have been intercepted from escaping before a spider can subdue them. The volume of material invested in a web's capture threads is related to spider weight and is the same for primitive orb‐weavers that produce cribellar capture thread and modern orb‐weavers that produce adhesive capture thread. However, as adhesive capture thread achieves greater stickiness relative to its volume, adhesive orb‐webs have a greater total stickiness and, consequently, a greater prey capture potential than cribellate orb‐webs. These differences appear to have favoured the transition from cribellate to adhesive capture threads and the success of adhesive orb‐weavers, which include 95% of all orb‐weaving species. Differences in the thread economy and the total stickiness of webs constructed by spiders of different weights also suggest that adhesive orb‐weavers should grow more rapidly and be capable of attaining a larger size than cribellate orb‐weavers.