Trait overdispersion and the role of sociality in the assembly of social spider communities across the Americas.

ABSTRACT: Among the factors that may lead to differences in resource use among closely related species, body size and morphology have been traditionally considered to play a role in community assembly. Here we argue that for animals that live and forage in groups, level of sociality, reflecting differences in group size and cooperative tendencies, can be an additional and powerful dimension separating species in niche space. We compare 50+ communities of the social spider genus Anelosimus across the Americas against a null model that accounts for known effects of biotic and abiotic factors on the distribution of social systems in the genus. We show that these communities are more overdispersed than expected by chance in either or both body size and level of sociality, traits we have previousl

SUBMITTER: Fernandez-Fournier P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6003372 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature