Infanticidal male eresid spiders
Article Abstract:
Male Stegodyphud lineatus spiders exhibit infanticide and remove the egg sacs of females to improve their mating success. The infanticide reduces female fecundity and survival. The female spiders generally produce only one egg sac and are eaten by their offsprings after hatching. In a natural population of spiders on the Avedat plateau, Negev desert, Israel, 22.7% of the females lose their egg sacs and produce replacement sacs with male spiders responsible for 33% of these losses. Infanticide is the only possible reproductive strategy for males that mature late.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1996
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Giant female or dwarf male spiders?
Article Abstract:
Life-history information on the spider genus Nephila calvipes has been used to demonstrate the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in sedentary females and roving males. High mortality among searching males biases the adult sex ratio towards females, favors male dwarfing by early maturation and reduces competition among males. Dimorphic species of the orb-weaving spider taxa are most probably due to female giantism rather than male dwarfism.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1997
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Fossil mesothele spiders
Article Abstract:
The presence of mesotheles in the late Carboniferous appears to be confirmed with the discovery of two new fossils of Mesothele spiders at Montceau-les-Mines in France. It is the first record of a fossil mesothele. The fossil species are not ancestral to modern mesotheles. Mesotheles exhibit the most primitive characteristics of all living spiders. Two living spiders, Liphistius and Heptathela, constitute the suborder Mesothele.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1996
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