1. lifelines
  2. City life makes bigger spiders

City life makes bigger spiders

By dr. dolittle on August 23, 2014.

A new study from researchers at the University of Sydney shows that golden orb-weaving spiders (Nephila plumipes) that live in the city are larger and produce more offspring as compared to country living.

When they say the spiders are big, they mean really big. The females can reach up to 20-25mm (males are only ~5mm).

The researchers speculate that the urban heat island effect, which is attributed to a lack vegetation and hard surfaces, may lead to the increased body size as invertebrates in warmer climates tend to be larger. Further, they speculate that the abundance of insects attracted to urban lighting (i.e. spider food) also promotes growth and reproductive success.

Sources:
Lowe EC, Wilder SM, Hochuli DF. Urbanisation at Multiple Scales Is Associated with Larger Size and Higher Fecundity of an Orb-Weaving Spider. PLoS ONE 9(8): e105480. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105480

University of Sydney press release

Tags
Life Science
bird
body
city
food
growth
insects
invertebrate
reproduction
spider
success

More like this

World's largest web-spinning spider discovered in South Africa
In the forests of South Africa lurks an arachnophobe's nightmare - Nephila kowaci, the largest web-spinning spider in the world. The females of this newly discovered species have bodies that are 3-4 centimetres in length (1.5 inches) and legs that are each around 7.5cm long (3 inches). This new…
Tarantula insecticide
Photo credit: Margaret C. Hardy   Drs. Glenn King and Maggie Hardy at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Australia have discovered a small protein, aptly named orally active insecticidal peptide-1 (OAIP-1), in the venom of Australian tarantulas (Selenotypus plumipes…
The high cost of reproductive inequality
Image of Indonesia's Komodo dragons from Scientific American. Dr. Tim Jessop from the University of Melbourne, Australia and colleagues  spent eight years following 400 Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) to learn more about their growth rate, lifespan as well as differences between populations…
Old spiders
Two short articles in this week's Science link the orb-weaving spiders back to a common ancestor in the Early Cretaceous, with both physical and molecular evidence. What we have is a 110-million-year-old piece of amber that preserves a piece of an orb web and some captured prey, and a new…

Last I checked, climate scientists were in agreement that increase in mean global temps would produce localized increases in the sizes of insects and arachnids.

That might actually be useful in scaring some undecideds into thinking about climate change.

Big

Hairy

Spiders!

Eeek! OK, solar, wind, nuclear, whatever it takes!

Interesting point made pertaining to spider food being attracted to urban light. The artificial night lighting attracts many insects to a certain spot, making it easier for spiders to consume more prey. Discovery posted an intresting article that contains more facts about how Urban areas promote spider growth - (http://news.discovery.com/animals/insects/some-spiders-grow-bigger-in-u…)