FEBRUARY
11, 2020
Being
inconspicuous might seem the best strategy for spiders to catch potential prey
in their webs, but many orb-web spiders, which hunt in this way, are brightly
coloured. New research finds their distinct yellow and black pattern is
actually essential in luring prey. The findings are published in the British
Ecological Society journal: Functional Ecology.
Researchers
from Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and the UK placed cardboard cut-out models of
the golden orb-weaver, Nephila pilipes, onto real webs in the field.
Testing different combinations of colours and patterns they discovered that
both the yellow colour and the black and yellow mosaic pattern are essential
for luring prey during the
day.
The webs
of Nephila pilipes also capture prey during the night, and the
experiments demonstrated that the yellow colour alone was very effective at
luring nocturnal insects.
Orb-weaving
spiders are found in different light conditions, and comparisons between many
different species revealed a link between light environments and orb-weaver
body colour patterns. Species that build their webs in well-lit environments
are more likely to evolve the yellow mosaic colour pattern, found to be so
effective at luring prey in these experiments.
However,
this colour pattern rarely evolves in species that have little opportunity to
lure prey, perhaps because they are concealed in a retreat or build their webs
in dark caves.
Dr. Po
Peng, lead author of the study, said, "Our discoveries indicate that the
effectiveness of colour-luring to attract prey might be a major driver for the
yellow mosaic pattern being present in distantly related orb-weaver
spiders."
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