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Relationship Between Crab Spider Misumena Vatia Nesting Success and Earlier Patch‐Choice Decisions
Author(s) -
Morse Douglass H.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1941174
Subject(s) - nest (protein structural motif) , nesting (process) , predation , spider , foraging , biology , ecology , reproductive success , zoology , offspring , demography , population , pregnancy , genetics , sociology , metallurgy , biochemistry , materials science
To test the relationship between foraging—theory predictions and the survival of offspring, I studied the crap spider Misumena vatia. These spiders decrease egg predation by guarding their nests. This advantage occurs largely during the first half of the nesting period. Nests of females removed after laying were less successful than those from which the female was not removed, but success of nests abandoned during the second part of the nesting period did not differ from that of females remaining until the young had left. Nests guarded by large females were more successful in some years than those guarded by small females; however, no size—related difference in success occurred in nests from which females were removed. Since large egg masses result directly from accurate choice of hunting sites and subsequent high prey capture (Fritz and Marse 1985), the nest—guarding period often enhances earlier reproductive success and augments selection for accurate choice of hunting sites.