Resting networks and personality predict attack speed in social spiders.

ABSTRACT: Groups of social predators capture large prey items collectively, and their social interaction patterns may impact how quickly they can respond to time-sensitive predation opportunities. We investigated whether various organizational levels of resting interactions (individual, sub-group, group), observed at different intervals leading up to a collective prey attack, impacted the predation speed of colonies of the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola. We found that in adult spiders, overall group connectivity (average degree) increased group attack speed. However, this effect was detected only immediately before the predation event; connectivity between 2 and 4 days before prey capture had little impact on the collective dynamics. Significantly, lower social proximity of the group's boldest i

SUBMITTER: Hunt ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7241254 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature