Progeny, development and phenology of the sub-social spider

CARMEN VIERA, FERNANDO G. COSTA, SOLEDAD GHIONE & MARCO A. BENAMU

Neotropical Fauna and Environment,

The Charlesworth Group,

Año: 2006

We studied the life cycle of Anelosimus cf. studiosus under field and laboratory conditions. Nests were collected monthly from the field during a whole year for estimating the phenology of the species. Egg-sac production, maternal care until spiderling emergence and instars of development until adulthood were recorded in the laboratory. This species showed an annual cycle. Each female built a mean of 2.7 egg-sacs, averaging 32 spiderlings per egg-sac. Mothers fed juveniles through regurgitations and shared whole captured prey. The sex-ratio from reared penultimate individuals was biased towards females (1.9:1), and males reached adulthood earlier than females. According to our findings, only one clutch would develop per year in the field (univoltine strategy), with mothers focusing efforts on the first clutch allowing matriphagy.