Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

One spider a leaf: competition for web-sites in Nephila maculata spiderlings

1998; Arachnological Society of Japan; Volume: 47; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2476/asjaa.47.31

1880-7852

Tadashi Miyashita, Tadashi Fukami, Aya Shimazaki,

Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Spiderlings of the orb-weaver Nephila maculata frequently build webs on a large leaf surface such as Farfugium japonicum. In our observations and removal experiment, the spiderlings showed (1) uniform distribution with respect to leaves, i.e., one spider a leaf, (2) high preference for “deep” leaves which were limited, and (3) higher immigration rate onto leaves from which spiders were removed. These provide evidence of intraspecific competition for web-sites, a phenomenon rarely reported in orb-web spiders.