Spiders are ubiquitous generalist predators playing an important role in regulating insect populations in many ecosystems. Traditionally they have not been thought to have strong influences on, or interactions with plants. However, this is slowly changing as several species of cursorial spiders have been reported engaging in either herbivory or inhabiting only one, or a handful of related plant species. In this review paper, we focus on web-building spiders on which very little information is available. We only find well-documented evidence from studies of host plant specificity in orb spiders in the genus Eustala, which are associated with specific species of swollen thorn acacias. We review what little is known of this group in the context of spider–plant interactions generally, and focus on how these interactions are established and maintained while providing suggestions on how spiders may locate and identify specific species of plants. Finally, we suggest ideas for future fruitful research aimed at understanding how web-building spiders find and utilise specific plant hosts.
Orb‐weaving spiders are abundant predators in agroecosystems and serve as key natural enemies for pest control. However, studies have demonstrated that many insecticides can negatively affect the predatory behaviours of spiders when exposed to sublethal concentrations, thus disrupting their biocontrol potential and subsequent ecosystem dynamics. Understanding how insecticides impact spiders is, therefore, of great importance. This study investigated the effects of two conventional insecticides (thiamethoxam and deltamethrin), and a common biopesticide (neem oil) compared to a tap water control on the functional response of a common orb‐weaver Araneus diadematus. Spiders were collected from the wild and maintained under laboratory conditions in containers (20 × 20 × 5 cm) to allow for web production. Spiders were then exposed to one of the four treatments and Drosophila melanogaster were added to the webs as prey at densities of 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 40, with the number of consumed prey quantified after 16‐h to determine the functional response. Overall, A. diadematus exhibited a type II functional response when exposed to the control, thiamethoxam and neem oil treatments, with comparable consumption rates, search coefficients and handling times. This contrasted with deltamethrin‐treated spiders which exhibited a type III functional response and a lower consumption rate of prey compared to the control. This study demonstrates that deltamethrin, unlike thiamethoxam and neem oil, is capable of negatively affecting the biocontrol potential of A. diadematus. However, further research is required to fully understand the impact insecticides have on the predatory behaviours of orb‐weaving spiders.
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