Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Predictors of colony extinction vary by habitat type in social spiders

View ORCID ProfileBrendan L. McEwen, James L. L. Lichtenstein, David N. Fisher, Colin M. Wright, Greg T. Chism, Noa Pinter-Wollman, Jonathan N. Pruitt
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/612432
Brendan L. McEwen
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1 Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Brendan L. McEwen
  • For correspondence: Mceweb1@mcmaster.ca
James L. L. Lichtenstein
2Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA USA 93106
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David N. Fisher
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1 Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Colin M. Wright
3Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16801, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Greg T. Chism
4Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Program in Entomology & Insect Science, University of Arizona, AZ 85721, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Noa Pinter-Wollman
5Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California – Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA USA 90095
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jonathan N. Pruitt
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1 Canada
2Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA USA 93106
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Many animal societies are susceptible to mass mortality events and collapse. Elucidating how environmental pressures determine patterns of collapse is key for our understanding of social evolution. Using the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola we investigated the environmental drivers of colony extinction along two precipitation gradients across southern Africa, using the Namib and Kalahari deserts versus wetter savanna habitats to the north and east. We deployed experimental colonies (n = 242) along two 800km transects and returned to assess colony success in the field after two months. Specifically, we noted colony extinction events after the two-month duration and collected environmental data on the correlates of those extinction events (e.g., evidence of ant attacks, # prey captured). We found that colony extinction events at desert sites were more frequently associated with attacks by predatory ants as compared to savanna sites, while colony extinctions in wetter savannas sites were more tightly associated with fungal outbreaks. Our findings support the hypothesis that environments vary in the selection pressures that they impose on social organisms, which may explain why different social phenotypes are often favored in each habitat.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted April 18, 2019.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Predictors of colony extinction vary by habitat type in social spiders
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Predictors of colony extinction vary by habitat type in social spiders
Brendan L. McEwen, James L. L. Lichtenstein, David N. Fisher, Colin M. Wright, Greg T. Chism, Noa Pinter-Wollman, Jonathan N. Pruitt
bioRxiv 612432; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/612432
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Predictors of colony extinction vary by habitat type in social spiders
Brendan L. McEwen, James L. L. Lichtenstein, David N. Fisher, Colin M. Wright, Greg T. Chism, Noa Pinter-Wollman, Jonathan N. Pruitt
bioRxiv 612432; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/612432

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Ecology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3602)
  • Biochemistry (7567)
  • Bioengineering (5522)
  • Bioinformatics (20782)
  • Biophysics (10325)
  • Cancer Biology (7978)
  • Cell Biology (11635)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6602)
  • Ecology (10200)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13611)
  • Genetics (9539)
  • Genomics (12844)
  • Immunology (7919)
  • Microbiology (19538)
  • Molecular Biology (7657)
  • Neuroscience (42081)
  • Paleontology (308)
  • Pathology (1257)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2201)
  • Physiology (3267)
  • Plant Biology (7038)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1294)
  • Synthetic Biology (1951)
  • Systems Biology (5426)
  • Zoology (1116)