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Sex-specific effects of capital resources on reproductive timing and success in red squirrels. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03245-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Romero S, Laino A, Molina G, Cunningham M, Garcia CF. Embryonic and post-embryonic development of the spider Polybetes pythagoricus (Sparassidae): A biochemical point of view. AN ACAD BRAS CIENC 2022; 94:e20210159. [PMID: 35976362 DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765202220210159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Analysis of energy expense during development has achieved special interest through time on account of the crucial role of the consumption of resources required for offspring survival. Spider eggs have a fixed composition as well as some initial energy that is supplied by mothers. These resources are necessary to support the metabolic expense not only through the embryonic period but also during the post-embryonic period, as well as for post emerging activities before spiderlings become self-sustaining. Depletion of these resources would be critical for spiders since it could give rise to prey competition as well as filial cannibalism. Even though spiders represent a megadiverse order, information regarding the metabolic requirements during spiders development is very scarce. In this study, we analyse the changes in protein, lipid and carbohydrate content as well as the variation in lipovitellin reserves and hemocyanin content during Polybetes pythagoricus development. Our results show that lipovitellins and phospholipids represent the major energy source throughout embryonic and post-embryonic development. Lipovitellin apolipoproteins are gradually consumed but are later depleted after dispersion. Phosphatidylethanolamine is mainly consumed during the post-embryonic period, while triacylglycerides are consumed after juveniles' dispersion. Finally, hemocyanin concentration starts to increase in postembryonic stages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Romero
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata/Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (UNLP-CONICET), Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner" (INIBIOLP), FCM, Calle 60 y 120, La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Aldana Laino
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata/Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (UNLP-CONICET), Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner" (INIBIOLP), FCM, Calle 60 y 120, La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Gabriel Molina
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata/Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (UNLP-CONICET), Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner" (INIBIOLP), FCM, Calle 60 y 120, La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Monica Cunningham
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata/Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (UNLP-CONICET), Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner" (INIBIOLP), FCM, Calle 60 y 120, La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Carlos Fernando Garcia
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata/Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas (UNLP-CONICET), Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner" (INIBIOLP), FCM, Calle 60 y 120, La Plata (1900), Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Feng Q, Wen L, Ma J, Yu L, Li C, Jiao X. The effects of prey lipid on female mating and reproduction of a wolf spider. Curr Zool 2022; 68:726-733. [PMID: 36743223 PMCID: PMC9892792 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoac003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
As predators, the macronutrients spiders extract from their prey play important roles in their mating and reproduction. Previous studies of macronutrients on spider mating and reproduction focus on protein, the potential impact of prey lipid content on spider mating and reproduction remains largely unexplored. Here, we tested the influence of prey varying in lipid content on female mating, sexual cannibalism, reproduction, and offspring fitness in the wolf spider Pardosa pseudoannulata. We acquired 2 groups of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster that differed significantly in lipid but not protein content by supplementing cultural media with a high or low dose of sucrose on which the fruit flies were reared (HL: high lipid and LL: low lipid). Subadult (i.e., 1 molt before adult) female spiders that fed HL flies matured with significantly higher lipid content than those fed LL flies. We found that the mated females fed with HL flies significantly shortened pre-oviposition time and resulted in a significantly higher fecundity. However, there was no significant difference in female spiders varying in lipid content on other behaviors and traits, including the latency to courtship, courtship duration, mating, copulation duration, sexual cannibalism, offspring body size, and survival. Hence, our results suggest that the lipid content of prey may be a limiting factor for female reproduction, but not for other behavioral traits in the wolf spiders P. pseudoannulata.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jiayi Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Center for Behavioral Ecology and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Long Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Center for Behavioral Ecology and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Changchun Li
- Address correspondence to Changchun Li. E-mail: and Xiaoguo Jiao. E-mail:
| | - Xiaoguo Jiao
- Address correspondence to Changchun Li. E-mail: and Xiaoguo Jiao. E-mail:
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Carvajal-Castro JD, Vargas-Salinas F, Casas-Cardona S, Rojas B, Santos JC. Aposematism facilitates the diversification of parental care strategies in poison frogs. Sci Rep 2021; 11:19047. [PMID: 34561489 PMCID: PMC8463664 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97206-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Many organisms have evolved adaptations to increase the odds of survival of their offspring. Parental care has evolved several times in animals including ectotherms. In amphibians, ~ 10% of species exhibit parental care. Among these, poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) are well-known for their extensive care, which includes egg guarding, larval transport, and specialized tadpole provisioning with trophic eggs. At least one third of dendrobatids displaying aposematism by exhibiting warning coloration that informs potential predators about the presence of defensive skin toxins. Aposematism has a central role in poison frog diversification, including diet specialization, and visual and acoustic communication; and it is thought to have impacted their reproductive biology as well. We tested the latter association using multivariate phylogenetic methods at the family level. Our results show complex relationships between aposematism and certain aspects of the reproductive biology in dendrobatids. In particular, aposematic species tend to use more specialized tadpole-deposition sites, such as phytotelmata, and ferry fewer tadpoles than non-aposematic species. We propose that aposematism may have facilitated the diversification of microhabitat use in dendrobatids in the context of reproduction. Furthermore, the use of resource-limited tadpole-deposition environments may have evolved in tandem with an optimal reproductive strategy characterized by few offspring, biparental care, and female provisioning of food in the form of unfertilized eggs. We also found that in phytotelm-breeders, the rate of transition from cryptic to aposematic phenotype is 17 to 19 times higher than vice versa. Therefore, we infer that the aposematism in dendrobatids might serve as an umbrella trait for the evolution and maintenance of their complex offspring-caring activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan D. Carvajal-Castro
- grid.264091.80000 0001 1954 7928Department of Biological Sciences, St. John’s University, Jamaica-Queens, NY USA ,grid.441861.e0000 0001 0690 6629Grupo de Evolución, Ecología y Conservación (EECO), Programa de Biología, Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia
| | - Fernando Vargas-Salinas
- grid.441861.e0000 0001 0690 6629Grupo de Evolución, Ecología y Conservación (EECO), Programa de Biología, Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia
| | - Santiago Casas-Cardona
- grid.441861.e0000 0001 0690 6629Grupo de Evolución, Ecología y Conservación (EECO), Programa de Biología, Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia
| | - Bibiana Rojas
- grid.9681.60000 0001 1013 7965Department of Biology and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland ,grid.6583.80000 0000 9686 6466Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Juan C. Santos
- grid.264091.80000 0001 1954 7928Department of Biological Sciences, St. John’s University, Jamaica-Queens, NY USA
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Differential allocation in a gift-giving spider: males adjust their reproductive investment in response to female condition. BMC Ecol Evol 2021; 21:140. [PMID: 34238218 PMCID: PMC8268551 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-021-01870-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background When males are selective, they can either reject low-quality females or adjust their reproductive investment in response to traits that indicate female quality (e.g., body size or condition). According to the differential allocation hypothesis, males increase their reproductive investment when paired with high-quality females (positive differential allocation) or increase their reproductive investment when paired with low-quality females (negative differential allocation). This hypothesis has been proposed for monogamous species with biparental care, and most empirical studies focus on birds. Here we used the polygamous spider Paratrechalea ornata, in which males offer prey wrapped in silk as nuptial gifts, to test whether males adjust their reproductive investment in gift size, pre-copulatory and copulatory courtship, and sperm transfer in response to female body condition. Results Males exposed to females in good body condition added more flies to the gift, stimulated these females longer with abdominal touches during pre-copulatory courtship, and had longer pedipalp insertions than males exposed to females in poor body condition. Female condition affected neither silk investment in nuptial gift wrapping nor the quantity of sperm transferred by males. Finally, females in good body condition oviposited faster after copulation and laid more eggs than females in poor body condition. Conclusions We provide experimental evidence that males of a gift-giving spider exhibit positive differential allocation in three key aspects of their reproductive investment: the size of the nutritious gift, duration of pre-copulatory courtship, and duration of pedipalp insertions, which is regarded as a form of copulatory courtship in spiders. This positive differential allocation is likely associated with the benefits of copulating with females in good body condition. These females are more fecund and oviposit faster after copulation than females in poor body condition, which under natural field conditions probably reduces the risk of multiple matings and thus the level of sperm competition faced by the males. As a final remark, our findings indicate that the hypothesis of differential allocation also applies to species with a scramble competition mating system, in which males heavily invest in nuptial gift construction, but not in parental care. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12862-021-01870-1.
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Wen L, Jiao X, Liu F, Zhang S, Li D. High-lipid prey reduce juvenile survivorship and delay egg laying in a small linyphiid spider Hylyphantes graminicola. J Exp Biol 2020; 223:jeb237255. [PMID: 33161380 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.237255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Prey proteins and lipids greatly impact predator life-history traits. However, life-history plasticity offers predators the opportunity to tune the life-history traits in response to the limited macronutrients to allocate among traits. A fast-growing predator species with a strict maturation time may be more likely to consume nutritionally imbalanced prey. Here, we tested this hypothesis by examining the effect of the protein-to-lipid ratio in prey on a small sheet web-building spider, Hylyphantes graminicola, with a short life span, using adult Drosophila melanogaster as the prey. By manipulating the macronutrient content of the prey to generate three prey types with different protein-to-lipid ratios (i.e. high, intermediate and low), we demonstrated that the majority of the spiders that consumed only these flies could reach full maturity. However, juvenile spiders that consumed high-lipid (low protein-to-lipid ratio) flies had a higher rate of mortality than those consuming medium-protein and high-protein flies. The prey protein-to-lipid ratio had no significant effects on the developmental duration and size at maturity. Although the prey protein-to-lipid ratio had no significant influence on mating behaviour and female fecundity, females reared on high-lipid flies exhibited a significant delay in oviposition compared with those reared on high-protein flies. We conclude that high-lipid prey has negative effects on the survival and reproductive function of H. graminicola Our study thus provides clear evidence that low plasticity with fast development to a certain size means a high nutritional requirement for protein at a cost of lower survival and prolonged time to egg laying when prey have low protein-to-lipid content in H. graminicola.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lelei Wen
- Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Xiaoguo Jiao
- Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Fengxiang Liu
- Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Shichang Zhang
- Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Daiqin Li
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore
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Wen L, Zhang Z, Zhang S, Liu F, Jiao X, Li D. Influence of maternal diet on offspring survivorship, growth, and reproduction in a sheetweb spider. Biol Open 2020; 9:bio056846. [PMID: 33158902 PMCID: PMC7657467 DOI: 10.1242/bio.056846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Prey vary dramatically in quality, and maternal diet is generally assumed to substantially influence offspring survivorship, growth, and reproduction in spiders. Numerous studies that have tested this hypothesis have focused exclusively on parental generation or have considered relatively few fitness components of juvenile offspring. However, maternal diet may have a substantial effect on fitness performance beyond juvenile offspring. Here, we investigated the influence of one-time maternal feeding on multiple offspring fitness components, including the survival rate and growth of juvenile offspring as well as the mating and reproductive success of adult offspring in Hylyphantes graminicola, a sheetweb spider with an extremely short lifespan (∼1 month). We fed field-collected adult female spiders two different diets only once immediately before oviposition: midges (Tendipes sp.) only (MO) or flies (Drosophila melanogaster) only (FO). Juvenile offspring of MO females had significantly higher survival rate, faster growth, and larger male size at maturity than FO offspring. Although maternal diet did not significantly influence mating behavior or fecundity of female offspring overall, those of MO females laid eggs earlier and their eggs also hatched earlier and had a higher hatching rate than those of FO females. Intriguingly, one-time maternal feeding was sufficient to have such an influence on offspring fitness even beyond juvenile offspring in Hgraminicola This one-time maternal effect may be widespread in other spiders and other invertebrates with a short lifespan.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lelei Wen
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Zengtao Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Shichang Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Fengxiang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Xiaoguo Jiao
- State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution (CBEE), School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, Hubei, China
| | - Daiqin Li
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543
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Richardson J, Ross J, Smiseth PT. Food deprivation affects egg laying and maternal care but not offspring performance in a beetle. Behav Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Individuals vary with respect to their nutritional state and such variation is an important determinant of the amount of resources individuals allocate toward reproductive functions. Currently, we have a relatively poor understanding of the downstream consequences of food deprivation on different traits associated with reproduction. Here, we address this gap by investigating how food deprivation affected different traits across the breeding cycle in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides; a species that breeds on carcasses of small vertebrates serving as food for both parents and offspring. We found that food-deprived females took longer to start egg laying than control females, which may allow them more time to feed from the carcass. There was no difference between food-deprived and control females in the number, size, laying pattern, or hatching success of eggs, suggesting that this delay allowed females to compensate for their poor initial state. However, food-deprived females spent less time providing care, suggesting that this compensation was incomplete. Finally, we found no evidence for negative effects of food deprivation on the offspring’s growth or survival, which is surprising given that food-deprived females took longer to initiate egg laying and provided less care to their offspring. Our results highlight that food deprivation can have complex effects on parental and offspring traits, and suggest that females face a trade-off between the benefits of mitigating downstream consequences of nutritional stress and the costs associated with delaying the start of reproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon Richardson
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Jennifer Ross
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Per T Smiseth
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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Moura RR, Vasconcellos-Neto J, Gonzaga MDO. Extended male care in Manogea porracea (Araneae: Araneidae): the exceptional case of a spider with amphisexual care. Anim Behav 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.09.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Berger-Tal R, Berner-Aharon N, Aharon S, Tuni C, Lubin Y. Good reasons to leave home: proximate dispersal cues in a social spider. J Anim Ecol 2016; 85:1035-42. [PMID: 27084588 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2015] [Accepted: 03/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Natal dispersal is a successful tactic under a range of conditions in spite of significant costs. Habitat quality is a frequent proximate cause of dispersal, and studies have shown that dispersal increases both when natal habitat quality is good or poor. In social species kin competition, favouring dispersal may be balanced by the benefits of group living, favouring philopatry. We investigated the effect of changes in the local environment on natal dispersal of adult females in a social spider species, Stegodyphus dumicola (Araneae, Eresidae), with a flexible breeding system, where females can breed either within the colony or individually following dispersal. We manipulated foraging opportunities in colonies by either removing the capture webs or by adding prey and recorded the number of dispersing females around each focal colony, and their survival and reproductive success. We predicted that increasing kin competition should increase dispersal of less-competitive individuals, while reducing competition could cause either less dispersal (less competition) or more dispersal (a cue indicating better chances to establish a new colony). Dispersal occurred earlier and at a higher rate in both food-augmented and web-removal colonies than in control colonies. Fewer dispersing females survived and reproduced in the web-removal group than in the control or food-augmented groups. The results support our prediction that worsening conditions in web-removal colonies favour dispersal, whereby increased kin competition and increased energy expenditure on web renewal cause females to leave the natal colony. By contrast, prey augmentation may serve as a habitat-quality cue; when the surrounding habitat is expected to be of high quality, females assess the potential benefit of establishing a new colony to be greater than the costs of dispersal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reut Berger-Tal
- Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, 8499000, Israel.,Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, building 1540, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Na'ama Berner-Aharon
- Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, 8499000, Israel
| | - Shlomi Aharon
- Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, 8499000, Israel
| | - Cristina Tuni
- Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, building 1540, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark.,Department Biology II, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Großhaderner Str. 2, 82152, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - Yael Lubin
- Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, 8499000, Israel
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Modlmeier AP, Laskowski KL, Brittingham HA, Coleman A, Knutson KA, Kuo C, McGuirk M, Zhao K, Keiser CN, Pruitt JN. Adult presence augments juvenile collective foraging in social spiders. Anim Behav 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.07.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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Nutrient-mediated architectural plasticity of a predatory trap. PLoS One 2013; 8:e54558. [PMID: 23349928 PMCID: PMC3551802 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2012] [Accepted: 12/14/2012] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Nutrients such as protein may be actively sought by foraging animals. Many predators exhibit foraging plasticity, but how their foraging strategies are affected when faced with nutrient deprivation is largely unknown. In spiders, the assimilation of protein into silk may be in conflict with somatic processes so we predicted web building to be affected under protein depletion. Methodology/Principal Findings To assess the influence of protein intake on foraging plasticity we fed the orb-web spiders Argiope aemula and Cyclosa mulmeinensis high, low or no protein solutions over 10 days and allowed them to build webs. We compared post-feeding web architectural components and major ampullate (MA) silk amino acid compositions. We found that the number of radii in webs increased in both species when fed high protein solutions. Mesh size increased in A. aemula when fed a high protein solution. MA silk proline and alanine compositions varied in each species with contrasting variations in alanine between the two species. Glycine compositions only varied in C. mulmeinensis silk. No spiders significantly lost or gained mass on any feeding treatment, so they did not sacrifice somatic maintenance for amino acid investment in silk. Conclusions/Significance Our results show that the amount of protein taken in significantly affects the foraging decisions of trap-building predators, such as orb web spiders. Nevertheless, the subtle differences found between species in the association between protein intake, the amino acids invested in silk and web architectural plasticity show that the influence of protein deprivation on specific foraging strategies differs among different spiders.
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