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Aggression in Tropical Orb‐weaving Spiders a Quest for Food?
Author(s) -
Hoffmaster Debra K.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1986.tb00628.x
Subject(s) - aggression , predation , spider , contest , ecology , attraction , biology , psychology , zoology , social psychology , political science , law , linguistics , philosophy
Abstract This study examines factors that influence aggression between orb‐weaving spiders in Panama. As a measure of a spider's tendency to invade, I randomly released 24 marked spiders near occupied webs. To assess aggression, I staged 150 interactions using 80 intruders of two species and 73 occupants of 12 species. Aggression was measured using a composite index resulting in a single measure for each combatant and each interaction. As anticipated, occupant and intruder aggression (measured by the aggressive index) were highly correlated. Surprisingly, no other variables were able to explain the remaining variation in either measure. Intruder prey deprivation, the presence or absence of prey at the beginning of the encounter and the presence or absence of mid‐sequence prey were each related to contest length. This relationship, between contest length and prey, indicates that prey are important in determining the combatants' persistence and suggests the existence of complex interrelationships between aggression and measures of prey availability.