|
Social Spider
A social spider is a spider species whose individuals form relatively long-lasting aggregations. Whereas most spiders are solitary and even aggressive toward other members of their own species, some hundreds of species in several families show a tendency to live in groups, often referred to as colonies. Spider sociality Most species of social spiders live in the tropical regions of the world where size and density of their prey – insects – is highest. But several species reach into the eastern United States and other temperate areas. By building a communal web, it is thought that the spiders approximately maximize total biomass capture per spider. Having a larger web and multiple spiders to work together to subdue prey allows them to prey on larger organisms than would be possible if they led a solitary existence. The colonies can grow large enough to take down birds and bats, as well as very large insects. Living in a colony also has another major benefit for spiders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agelena Consociata Imported From INaturalist Photo 230673311 On 15 April 2023
Agelena is a genus of Agelenidae, agelenid spiders first described by Charles Athanase Walckenaer in 1805. Sometimes referred to as Eurasian grass spiders, they trap their prey by weaving entangling non-sticky funnel webs. They are limited to the Old World, occurring from Africa to Japan. Many species have been moved to other genera, particularly to ''Allagelena'', ''Benoitia'' and ''Mistaria''. Species , the World Spider Catalog accepted 44 species: *''Agelena annulipedella'' Strand, 1913 — Central Africa *''Agelena atlantea'' Fage, 1938 — Morocco *''Agelena australis'' Simon, 1896 — South Africa *''Agelena babai'' Tanikawa, 2005 — Japan *''Agelena barunae'' Tikader, 1970 — India *''Agelena canariensis'' Lucas, 1838 — Canary Is., Morocco, Algeria *''Agelena chayu'' Zhang, Zhu & Song, 2005 — China *''Agelena choi'' Paik, 1965 — Korea *''Agelena consociata'' Denis, 1965 — Gabon *''Agelena cuspidata'' Zhang, Zhu & Song, 2005 — China *''Agelena doris'' Hogg, 1922 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philoponella
''Philoponella'' is a genus of uloborid spiders. Like all Uloboridae, these species have no venom. Cooperation Some species (among them ''P. congregabilis'' and ''P. oweni'') construct communal webs, but nevertheless do not capture prey cooperatively. However, a few species, such as ''P. raffrayi'', are known to cooperate in prey capture. A colony of ''P. raffrayi'' is composed of individual orb-webs connected by non-adhesive silk. Its average body length is about 6 mm in females and 3 mm in males. Adult females are orange for at least a week after the final molt, and become black a few weeks later. In these colonies, ''Argyrodes'' and '' Portia'' species can also be found, acting as kleptoparasites and predators, respectively. When relatively large prey is trapped on the periphery of the colony, two females cooperate in about 10% of cases in wrapping it, which increases their chances of success about fourfold. However, only one female then feeds on this prey. Cooperat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasteatoda Wau
''Parasteatoda wau'' (formerly ''Achaeareanea wau'') is a species of social spider that lives around Wau, Papua New Guinea Wau is a town in Papua New Guinea, in the province of Morobe. It has a population of approx 5,000 and is situated at an altitude of around 1100 metres. Wau was the site of a gold rush during the 1920s and 30s when prospective gold diggers arrived .... The spider exhibits a complex dispersal behavior akin to swarming in social bees. It was first described by Herb Levi, Yael Lubin, and M.H. Robinson in 1982.Levi, H. W., Y. D. Lubin & M. H. Robinson. (1982) Two new ''Achaearanea'' species from Papua New Guinea with notes on other theridiid spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae)., ''Pacif. Insects'' 24: 105-113. Colony structure A ''P. wau'' colony consists of a flat, horizontal web, made of mesh silk, and a tangle of vertical silk strands forming a barrier. Insects fly into this barrier and fall to the mesh web, where the spiders capture them and feed on them. Su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stegodyphus
''Stegodyphus'' is a genus of velvet spiders that was first described by Eugène Simon in 1873. They are distributed from Africa to Europe and Asia, with one species (''S. manaus'') found in Brazil. The name is derived from Ancient Greek ('' stegos''), meaning "covered". At least three species are social spiders, and several are known to use ballooning as a method of dispersal. Species it contains twenty species: *'' Stegodyphus africanus'' ( Blackwall, 1866) – Africa *'' Stegodyphus bicolor'' ( O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1869) – Southern Africa *'' Stegodyphus dufouri'' ( Audouin, 1826) – North, West Africa *''Stegodyphus dumicola'' Pocock, 1898 – Central, Southern Africa *'' Stegodyphus hildebrandti'' ( Karsch, 1878) – Central, East Africa, Zanzibar *'' Stegodyphus hisarensis'' Arora & Monga, 1992 – India *''Stegodyphus lineatus'' (Latreille, 1817) (type) – Southern Europe, North Africa to Tajikistan *'' Stegodyphus lineifrons'' Pocock, 1898 – East Africa *'' Ste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eusocial
Eusociality ( Greek 'good' and social) is the highest level of organization of sociality. It is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups. The division of labor creates specialized behavioral groups within an animal society, sometimes called castes. Eusociality is distinguished from all other social systems because individuals of at least one caste usually lose the ability to perform behaviors characteristic of individuals in another caste. Eusocial colonies can be viewed as superorganisms. Eusociality has evolved among the insects, crustaceans, trematoda and mammals. It is most widespread in the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) and in Isoptera (termites). A colony has caste differences: queens and reproductive males take the roles of the sole reproducers, while soldiers and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latrodectus
''Latrodectus'' is a broadly distributed genus of spiders with several species that are commonly known as the true widows. This group is composed of those often loosely called black widow spiders, brown widow spiders, and similar spiders. However, the diversity of species is much greater. A member of the family Theridiidae, this genus contains 34 species, which include several North American "black widows" (southern Black Widow '' Latrodectus mactans'', western black widow ''Latrodectus hesperus'', and northern black widow '' Latrodectus variolus''). Besides these, North America also has the red widow '' Latrodectus bishopi'' and the brown widow ''Latrodectus geometricus'', which, in addition to North America, has a much wider geographic distribution. Elsewhere, others include the European black widow ('' Latrodectus tredecimguttatus''), the Australian redback spider (''Latrodectus hasseltii'') and the closely related New Zealand katipō (''Latrodectus katipo''), several differen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bagheera Kiplingi
''Bagheera kiplingi'' is a species of jumping spider found in Central America, including Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. It is the type species of the genus '' Bagheera'', which includes three other species, including '' B. prosper''.Platnick, Norman I. (2009)The world spider catalog version 10.0. American Museum of Natural History. ''B. kiplingi'' is notable for its peculiar diet, which is mostly herbivorous. No other known species of omnivorous spider has such a markedly herbivorous diet.Milius, Susan (11 August 2008):Vegetarian spider. '' Science News'Vol. 174 No. 5 Meehan, Christopher J.; , Eric J.; , Robert L. (21 August 2008)Exploitation of the Pseudomyrmex–Acacia mutualism by a predominantly vegetarian jumping spider (Bagheera kiplingi) The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting. Taxonomy The genus name is derived from Bagheera, the black panther from Rudyard Kipling's '' The Jungle Book'', with the species name honoring Kipling himself. Other salticid genera with names of Kiplin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbivore
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat non-vascular autotrophs such as mosses, algae and lichens, but do not include those feeding on decomposed plant matters (i.e. detritivores) or macrofungi (i.e. fungivores). As a result of their plant-based diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouth structures ( jaws or mouthparts) well adapted to mechanically break down plant materials, and their digestive systems have special enzymes (e.g. amylase and cellulase) to digest polysaccharides. Grazing herbivores such as horses and cattles have wide flat- crowned teeth that are better adapted for grinding grass, tree bark and other tougher lignin-containing materials, and many of them evolved rumination or cecotropic behaviors to better extract nutrients from plants. A larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kleptoparasite
Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, meaning "parasitism by theft") is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is Evolutionarily stable strategy, evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, such as when food is scarce or when victims are abundant. Many kleptoparasites are arthropods, especially bees and wasps, but including some true flies, dung beetles, bugs, and spiders. Cuckoo bees are specialized kleptoparasites which lay their eggs either on the pollen masses made by other bees, or on the insect hosts of Parasitoid wasp, parasitoid wasps. They are an instance of Emery's rule, which states that insect social parasites tend to be closely related to their hosts. The behavior occurs, too, in vertebrates including birds such as skuas, which persistently chase other seabirds until they disgorge their food, and carnivorous mammals such as spotted hyenas and lions. Other species opportunistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dictynidae
Dictynidae is a family of cribellate, hackled band-producing spiders first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1871. Most build irregular webs on or near the ground, creating a tangle of silken fibers among several branches or stems of one plant. The genus '' Argyroneta'' has been placed in a separate family Argyronetidae, but the family is not accepted by the World Spider Catalog and the genus is included in the Dictynidae. Genera , the World Spider Catalog accepts the following genera: *'' Adenodictyna'' Ono, 2008 — Japan *'' Aebutina'' Simon, 1892 — Ecuador, Brazil *'' Ajmonia'' Caporiacco, 1934 — Asia, Algeria *'' Altella'' Simon, 1884 — Europe, Asia, Algeria *''Anaxibia'' Thorell, 1898 — Asia, Africa *'' Arangina'' Lehtinen, 1967 — New Zealand *'' Archaeodictyna'' Caporiacco, 1928 — Asia, Europe, Africa *'' Arctella'' Holm, 1945 — Asia, North America *'' Argenna'' Thorell, 1870 — Asia, North America *'' Argennina'' Gertsch & Mulaik, 1936 — Unite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mallos Gregalis
''Mallos gregalis'' is a spider species belonging to the family Dictynidae. It is endemic to Mexico. Discovered by French naturalists in the previous century, ''M. gregalis'' were again brought to light in the 1970s by Wes Burgess through his research on their social lifestyle. ''M. gregalis'' live in groups containing thousands of individuals together on a sheet-like spider web. Like other social spiders, the unique qualities of ''M. gregalis web help make their social lifestyle possible. Their web preferentially transmits the vibrations of flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ... caught in the web while dampening out the vibrations caused by other spiders, thus allowing the ''M. gregalis'' spiders to distinguish between the prey and each other. The smell of pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
