Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Correspondence
Published: 2013-12-18
Page range: 189–192
Abstract views: 46
PDF downloaded: 2

A simple device to collect, store and study samples of two-dimensional spider webs

Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales – CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
Zoologisches Institut und Museum, Allgemeine und Systematische Zoologie, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
Araneae Spider

Abstract

Silk production and spinning are the most prominent characteristics of spiders (Araneae). The high diversity of web architectures correlates both with preying behaviors and with the ultra-structure of the silk threads that compose the webs, which in turn have a corresponding diversity of silk gland spigot complements. The details of web construction, thread structure, and gland spigot morphology have proven extremely informative for phylogenetic hypotheses (e.g., Eberhard 1982, 1988; Eberhard & Pereira 1993; Coddington 1989; Griswold et al. 2005; Hormiga et al. 1995; Lopardo & Ramírez 2007; Platnick et al. 1991; Agnarsson & Blackledge 2009; Eberhard 2010), and a fascinating system to study spider diversification and evolutionary trends (e.g., Opell 1996; Opell & Bond 2000; Blackledge et al. 2009, 2012; Dimitrov et al. 2012).