Insects from the grazing food web favoured the evolutionary habitat shift to bright environments in araneoid spiders.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Miyashita T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1833995 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Insects from the grazing food web favoured the evolutionary habitat shift to bright environments in araneoid spiders.
Miyashita Tadashi T Shimazaki Aya A
Biology letters 20061201 4
The Araneoidea comprises a diverse group of web-building spiders, and part of this diversity is believed attributable to habitat expansion to bright environments. We clarified the fitness-related advantages of living in such environments by examining prey availability and the growth rates of 10 species in three families inhabiting grassland (bright) and forest understory (dim) habitats. Spiders in the grassland habitat captured more prey, derived mainly from the grazing food web, than those in t ...[more]
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