Meet the social spider
This is an adult female Anelosimus eximius. Isn't she pretty?
This excellent photo was taken by Gabriel Iturralde, while he was helping me sort social spider nests that we collected.
About This Project
Sociality in spiders is extremely rare, but it has evolved several times. This begs the question: why be social? I aim to answer this by using social spiders found in Ecuador. I will determine the benefits and costs of sociality by measuring prey capture rates and parasite loads for four different species with varying levels of sociality. As social beings ourselves, we can understand social behaviour and cooperation by studying these unique spiders.
More Lab Notes From This Project
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