What native flowers attract the most spiders?

Methods

Summary

We will establish a set of wildflower plots to determine spider preferences for over 63 species of wildflowers native to the Gulf Atlantic Coastal Plain region. We will observe and collect spiders from blooming flowers as a measure of spider attraction to native flowering plants and also observe what pest insects are present. We will also take videos of spiders on wildflowers and hopefully in the action of eating insects.  Observations on spider behavior will be conducted on spiders seen on plants. We will note what spiders appear to be doing (i.e. feeding, cleaning, mating) and location on plant (i.e. in flower, on stem, and height in the plant). Spiders will be collected from plants and brought back to the laboratory for further identification. To translate our scientific findings of spider attraction to native wildflowers into publicly available information, we will first communicate through the experiment.com site to update on things happening as research unfolds. This will take the form of pictures of plants and spiders, and descriptive information on plants and spiders.