Unpredictable vibratory environments affect prey capture and web structure of the spider ...

Biotremology
Biotremology
36 بار بازدید - 2 سال پیش - Unpredictable vibratory environments affect prey
Unpredictable vibratory environments affect prey capture and web structure of the funnel-weaving spider Agelenopsis pennsylvanica

A lecture given by Brandi Pessman at the 3rd Biotremology Conference, Piran Slovenia.
Session: behavior 4, 21 September 2022

Abstract:

Mounting evidence suggests that air- and water-borne noise are pervasive and emergent threats to animal fitness. Yet we know little about the extent and consequences of substrate-borne noise, despite the ancient and ubiquitous use of substrate-borne vibrations as animal signals and cues. The funnel-weaving spider Agelenopsis pennsylvanica is prevalent across urban and rural habitats in North America, and these spiders rely on web vibrations to detect prey. To determine if and how experience with different vibratory environments affects prey capture and (presumably) associated web building behavior, we collected penultimate female A. pennsylvanica from urban and rural habitats demonstrated to differ in natural noise levels. Upon maturation, we exposed adult females to two 3-week periods of substrate-borne vibration playbacks (6 weeks total) using a fully crossed 2 x 2 design of ‘quiet’ (Q) and ‘loud’ (L) treatments. In addition to our four treatment groups (QQ, QL, LQ, LL), we had a ‘silent’ control group that did not receive any playbacks (SS). The treatments differed by 13 dB to match naturally recorded amplitude differences between our focal urban and rural sites. Twice a week across the 6 weeks, we measured the latency to attack (i) a live cricket and (ii) an artificial ‘prey’ stimulus. We also assessed web structure at the end of each three-week period by estimating (a) web denseness, (b) variability of denseness, and (c) dry mass. To see if our treatments influenced foraging and web building behavior, we compared time to attack live and artificial prey and our quantified web characteristics across our time periods. We found differences in attack latency between treatment groups and interactions between treatment groups and origin on web characteristics. Our results suggest that increased amplitudes of noise negatively impact prey capture and that A. pennsylvanica may adjust their web structure to changing vibratory conditions based on prior habitat experience.

http://projects.nib.si/biotremology2022/
2 سال پیش در تاریخ 1401/10/01 منتشر شده است.
36 بـار بازدید شده
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