Age variation in the body coloration of the orb-weaver spider Alpaida tuonabo and its implications on foraging.

ABSTRACT: Spiders show a repertoire of strategies to increase their foraging success. In particular, some orb-weaver spiders use attractive body colorations to lure prey. Interestingly, coloration varies with age in many species, which may result in ontogenetic variation of foraging success. By using field observations, laboratory experiments and spectrophotometric analysis, we investigated whether pale juveniles and bright adults of the orb-weaver Alpaida tuonabo use different foraging strategies due to ontogenetic variation in coloration. Field observations revealed that foraging success of juveniles and adults was influenced by web properties. However, foraging success increased with body size only in adults, supporting the idea that larger individuals produce a stronger visual signal for prey. T

SUBMITTER: Galvez D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5827658 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature