Gradients of precipitation and ant abundance may contribute to the altitudinal range limit of subsocial spiders: insights from a transplant experiment.

ABSTRACT: Species range boundaries often form along environmental gradients that dictate the success of the phenotypes present in each habitat. Sociality may allow colonization of environments where related species with a solitary lifestyle cannot persist. Social spiders in the genus Anelosimus appear restricted to low- and mid-elevation moist environments in the tropics, while subsocial spiders, common at higher elevations and latitudes, appear to be absent from the lowland tropical rainforest. Here, we seek factors that may simultaneously prevent subsocial Anelosimus species from colonizing the lowland rainforest while favouring species with large social groups in this habitat. To this end, we transplanted small groups of a subsocial species, which contain the offspring of a single female, from cl

SUBMITTER: Purcell J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2605798 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature