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Orb-weaving spiders show a correlated syndrome of morphology and web structure in the wild

View ORCID ProfileDavid N. Fisher, Justin Yeager, Jonathan N. Pruitt
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/767335
David N. Fisher
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main St West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4K1, Canada
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Justin Yeager
2Biodiversidad Medio Ambiente y Salud (BIOMAS), Direccion General de Investigacion, Universidad de las Américas, Quito, Ecuador
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Jonathan N. Pruitt
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main St West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4K1, Canada
3Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California – Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA USA 93106
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Abstract

Extended phenotypes are traits that exist outside the physical body of the organism. Despite their potential role in the lives of both the organisms that express them and other organisms that can be influenced by extended phenotypes, the consistency and covariance with morphological and behaviour traits of extended phenotypes is rarely evaluated, especially in wild organisms. We repeatedly measured an extended phenotype that directly influences an organism’s prey acquisition, the web structure, of wild orb-weaving spiders (Micrathena vigorsii), which re-build their webs each day. We related web structure traits to behavioural traits and body size (length). Both web diameter and web density were repeatably different among individuals, while reaction to a predation threat was slightly so, but response to a prey stimulus and web symmetry were not. There was a syndrome between morphology and web structure traits, where larger spiders spun webs that were wider, had webs with increased thread spacing, and the spider tended to react more slowly to a predation threat. When a spider built a relatively larger web it was also relatively a less dense and less symmetrical web. The repeatability of web construction and relationship with spider body size we found may be common features of intra-population variation in web structure in spiders. Individual variation along the morphology and web structure syndrome could represent variation in individual foraging strategies, or age-based correlated changes. By estimating the consistency and covariances of extended phenotypes we can begin to evaluate what maintains their variation and how they might evolve.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted September 12, 2019.
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Orb-weaving spiders show a correlated syndrome of morphology and web structure in the wild
David N. Fisher, Justin Yeager, Jonathan N. Pruitt
bioRxiv 767335; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/767335
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Orb-weaving spiders show a correlated syndrome of morphology and web structure in the wild
David N. Fisher, Justin Yeager, Jonathan N. Pruitt
bioRxiv 767335; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/767335

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