We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Predator perception of detritus and eggsac decorations spun by orb-web spiders Cyclosa octotuberculata: Do they function to camouflage the spiders?
- Authors
Wenjin Gan; Fengxiang Liu; Zengtao Zhang; Daiqin Li
- Abstract
Camouflage is one of the most widespread and powerful strategies that animals use to make detection/recognition more difficult. Many orb-web spiders of the genus Cyclosa add prey remains, plant debris, moults, and/or eggsacs to their webs called web decorations. Web decorations resembling spider body colour pattern have been considered to camouflage the spider from predators. While this camouflage is obvious from a human's perspective, it has rarely been investigated from a predator's perspective. In this study, we tested the visibility of web decorations by calculating chromatic and achromatic contrasts of detritus and eggsac decorations built by Cyclosa octotuberculata, against four different backgrounds viewed by both bird (e.g., blue tits) and hymenopteran (e.g. wasps) predators. We showed that both juvenile and adult spiders on webs with detritus or egg-sac decorations were undetectable by both hymenopteran and bird predators over short and long distances. Our results thus suggest that decorating webs with detritus or eggsacs by C. octotuberculata may camouflage the spiders from both hymenopteran and bird predators in their common habitats.
- Subjects
CYCLOSA; DANGER perception; PROTECTIVE coloration (Biology); DETRITUS; HYMENOPTERA; PREDATORY animals
- Publication
Current Zoology, 2010, Vol 56, Issue 3, p379
- ISSN
1674-5507
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/czoolo/56.3.379