AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF HABITAT SELECTION IN TEGENARIA DOMESTICA (ARANEIDA: AGELENIDAE).

摘要

During this study, captive and wild-caught spiders, Tegenaria domestica, were tested for their responses to various environmental factors that might affect web-site selection. These included temperature, humidity, air currents, light, vibrations, substrata, electrical and magnetic fields, gravitational cues, and atmospheric pressure. The spiders were subjected to choice trails during which they had an opportunity to build a web funnel under various environmental conditions.; Temperature, humidity, air currents, light, substrata, and gravity were found to affect the spiders' web locations. Sexual differences were found for response to sound and spider silk cues.; Extensive records were kept on the growth in terms of carapace length, weight, and instar duration on over 400 captive spiders. Additionally, comparisons were made between the growth and size of female and male juveniles and adults. Dates of first cocoon, clutch intervals, numbers of eggs per cocoon, and numbers of cocoons were recorded for adult females. Experiments were conducted on the outcome of encounters between pairs of adults confined in cages with only one web funnel per cage.; The data gathered from the choice trials and the life history records will be a foundation for field and laboratory experiments on survival, reproductive success, influence of the environment on growth, and species density correlations with environmental variables.