Collective prey capture and feeding behaviours of Anelosimus jabaquara Levi 1956 (araneae: theridiidae)

The phylogeny of the social Anelosimus spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae) inferred from six molecular loci and morphology.

We use fragments of three nuclear genes (Histone 3, 18SrDNA, and 28SrDNA) and three mitochondrial genes (16SrDNA, ND1, and COI) totalling approximately 4.5kb, in addition to morphological data, to estimate the phylogenetic relationships among Anelosimus spiders, well known for their sociality. The analysis includes 67 individuals representing 23 of the 53 currently recognized Anelosimus species...

Interactions between the Social Spider Anelosimus Studiosus (araneae, Theridiidae) and Foreign Spiders That Frequent Its Nests

Because competition for resources generally leads to the spatial exclusion of species using similar resources, it is surprising that foreign spider species are frequently observed in or near the nests of the social spider, Anelosimus studiosus (Hentz 1850) (Theridiidae). In this study, we quantified the frequency of A. studiosus-foreign spider co-occurrence and completed experiments designed to...

First male sperm precedence in multiply-mated females of the cooperative spider Anelosimus studiosus (Araneae, Theridiidae)

Patterns of sperm usage in multiply-mated females have profound fitness consequences for males, and create strong selective pressure on male behavior. In the cooperative theridiid spider Anelosimus studiosus Hentz 1850 adult males are tolerated in females’ webs, and females have been observed to mate multiply with different males. In this experiment, virgin females were mated with two different...

Dragline Attachment Pattern in the Neotropical Social Spider <Emphasis Type="Italic">Anelosimus eximius</Emphasis> (Araneae: Theridiidae)

The regularity of spiders orb webs has been considered a fascinating natural wonder by generations of naturalists. Although the majority of spider species build irregular three-dimensional networks, those who have evolved the twodimensional spiral snare have drawn most of the attention (Vollrath, 1988). Even studies conducted on irregular webs are often explicitly devoted to the search of simil...

‘Rectangular orb’ webs of Synotaxus (Araneae: Theridiidae)