Circadian rhythms in the locomotor activity of the spiders Carrhotus xanthogramma (Salticidae) and Philodromus cespitum (Philodromidae): Temporal patterns and sexual differences

Mezőfi, László; Markó, Gábor; Kovács, Péter; Markó, Viktor

doi:10.14411/eje.2019.017

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Although further studies revealed a number of species adopting a cathemeral lifestyle (Tattersall, 2008), across a broad diversity of mammalian taxa (Curtis & Rasmussen, 2006), it continued to be thought to be rather rare (Halle, 2006). However, in recent years, studies are revealing an increasing number of species that are active during both the light and dark portions of the daily cycle, including amongst arthropods (Mezőfi et al ., 2019; Stork, Smith & Cooper, 2020), fish (McCauley et al ., 2012; Bosiger & McCormick, 2014), lizards (Gamble et al ., 2015; Vidan et al ., 2019; Slavenko et al ., 2022), birds (Hall, 2008 a , b ) and mammals (Roll, Dayan & Kronfeld‐Schor, 2006; Bennie et al ., 2014; Santini, Rojas & Donati, 2015; Maor et al ., 2017). A failure to recognise the commonness of cathemeral behaviour, both in mammals and more broadly, is arguably understandable, given that although humans can show significant flexibility in activity times they are largely a diurnal species, and primarily carry out fieldwork during the daytime (Gaston, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cathemerality: a key temporal niche

Cox,

Gaston

2023

Biological Reviews

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Given the marked variation in abiotic and biotic conditions between day and night, many species specialise their physical activity to being diurnal or nocturnal, and it was long thought that these strategies were commonly fairly fixed and invariant. The term ‘cathemeral’, was coined in 1987, when Tattersall noted activity in a Madagascan primate during the hours of both daylight and darkness. Initially thought to be rare, cathemerality is now known to be a quite widespread form of time partitioning amongst arthropods, fish, birds, and mammals. Herein we provide a synthesis of present understanding of cathemeral behaviour, arguing that it should routinely be included alongside diurnal and nocturnal strategies in schemes that distinguish and categorise species across taxa according to temporal niche. This synthesis is particularly timely because (i) the study of animal activity patterns is being revolutionised by new and improved technologies; (ii) it is becoming apparent that cathemerality covers a diverse range of obligate to facultative forms, each with their own common sets of functional traits, geographic ranges and evolutionary history; (iii) daytime and nighttime activity likely plays an important but currently neglected role in temporal niche partitioning and ecosystem functioning; and (iv) cathemerality may have an important role in the ability of species to adapt to human‐mediated pressures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cathemerality: a key temporal niche

Cox,

Gaston

2023

Biological Reviews

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“…We assessed activity, risk-taking, and prey capture behavior for each spider individual on 3 consecutive days and repeated these assays weekly for 4 weeks in the same order. We performed our assays between 0900 and 1600 h (as that was the most active period for these animals) based on the model species’ circadian activity ( Mezőfi et al 2019 ). We recorded the assays using recording platforms (Kaiser RS 10 copy stands) equipped with a camera (Panasonic HC-X920 HD), which permitted the recording of the behavioral traits of several individuals simultaneously.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the immature stages have a fairly similar pattern and coloration, adults show marked sexual dimorphism in these features (males are much darker than females, but the opisthosoma of males is usually a richer red brown), and according to Kim and Lee (2014) , males are generally slightly shorter in body length. Additionally, a recent study found sex-related behavioral differences in adults: Females were more active than males ( Mezőfi et al 2019 ).…”

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confidence: 98%

“…Besides these differences, there are sex-specific variations in metabolic rate ( Kotiaho 1998 ), immune response ( Rádai et al 2018 ), body size ( Head 1995 ; Prenter et al 1998 ), or other morphological traits ( Albín et al 2018 ). Furthermore, spiders exhibit sexual dimorphism in features related to behavioral ecology, for example, in aggressiveness ( Kralj-Fišer et al 2017 , 2019 ), boldness ( Sweeney et al 2013 ), the behavioral mean, and even in the temporal pattern of locomotor activity ( Schmitt et al 1990 ; Krumpálová and Tuf 2013 ; Mezőfi et al 2019 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Sex-specific life-history strategies among immature jumping spiders: Differences in body parameters and behavior

et al. 2022

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Selection forces often generate sex-specific differences in various traits closely related to fitness. While in adult spiders (Araneae), sexes often differ in colouration, body size, antipredator or foraging behaviour, such sex-related differences are less pronounced amongst immatures. However, sex-specific life-history strategies may also be adaptive for immatures. Thus, we hypothesized that, among spiders, immature individuals show different life-history strategies that are expressed as sex-specific differences in body parameters and behavioural features, and also in their relationships. We used immature individuals of a protandrous jumping spider, Carrhotus xanthogramma, and examined sex-related differences. Results showed that males have higher mass and larger prosoma than females. Males were more active and more risk-tolerant than females. Male activity increased with time, and larger males tended to capture the prey faster than small ones, while females showed no such patterns. However, females reacted to the threatening abiotic stimuli more with the increasing number of test sessions. In both males and females, individuals with better body condition tended to be more risk-averse. Spiders showed no sex-specific differences in inter-individual behavioural consistency and in intra-individual behavioural variation in the measured behavioural traits. Finally, we also found evidence for behavioural syndromes (i.e. correlation between different behaviours), where in males only the activity correlated with the risk-taking behaviour, but in females all the measured behavioural traits were involved. The present study demonstrates that C. xanthogramma sexes follow different life-history strategies even before attaining maturity.

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“…7; Table S13). This suggests some selectivity in foraging behavior (Nentwig, 1980;Whitney et al, 2018;Eitzinger et al, 2019), but the influence of other species-specific factors such as microhabitat preference (Schmitz & Suttle, 2001), hunting strategy (Schmitz, 2008;Liu et al, 2015;Sanders, Vogel & Knop, 2015) or temporal niche (Morse, 1981;Herberstein & Elgar, 1994;Mezőfi et al, 2019) on the prey composition also cannot be excluded.…”

Section: Specific Differences In the Diet And In The Pest Control Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond polyphagy and opportunism: natural prey of hunting spiders in the canopy of apple trees

Mezőfi

Markó

Nagy

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Spiders (Araneae) form abundant and diverse assemblages in agroecosystems such as fruit orchards, and thus might have an important role as natural enemies of orchard pests. Although spiders are polyphagous and opportunistic predators in general, limited information exists on their natural prey at both species and community levels. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the natural prey (realized trophic niche) of arboreal hunting spiders, their role in trophic webs and their biological control potential with direct observation of predation events in apple orchards. Hunting spiders with prey in their chelicerae were collected in the canopy of apple trees in organic apple orchards in Hungary during the growing seasons between 2013 and 2019 and both spiders and their prey were identified and measured. Among others, the composition of the actual (captured by spiders) and the potential (available in the canopy) prey was compared, trophic niche and food web metrics were calculated, and some morphological, dimensional data of the spider-prey pairs were analyzed. Species-specific differences in prey composition or pest control ability were also discussed. By analyzing a total of 878 prey items captured by spiders, we concluded that arboreal hunting spiders forage selectively and consume a large number of apple pests; however, spiders’ beneficial effects are greatly reduced by their high levels of intraguild predation and by a propensity to switch from pests to alternative prey. In this study, arboreal hunting spiders showed negative selectivity for pests, no selectivity for natural enemies and positive selectivity for neutral species. In the trophic web, the dominant hunting spider taxa/groups (Carrhotus xanthogramma, Philodromus cespitum, Clubiona spp., Ebrechtella tricuspidata, Xysticus spp. and ‘Other salticids’) exhibit different levels of predation on different prey groups and the trophic web’s structure changes depending on the time of year. Hunting spiders show a high functional redundancy in their predation, but contrary to their polyphagous nature, the examined spider taxa showed differences in their natural diet, exhibited a certain degree of prey specialization and selected prey by size and taxonomic identity. Guilds (such as stalkers, ambushers and foliage runners) did not consistently predict either prey composition or predation selectivity of arboreal hunting spider species. From the economic standpoint, Ph. cespitum and Clubiona spp. were found to be the most effective natural enemies of apple pests, especially of aphids. Finally, the trophic niche width of C. xanthogramma and Ph. cespitum increased during ontogeny, resulting in a shift in their predation. These results demonstrate how specific generalist predators can differ from each other in aspects of their predation ecology even within a relatively narrow taxonomic group.

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Circadian rhythms in the locomotor activity of the spiders Carrhotus xanthogramma (Salticidae) and Philodromus cespitum (Philodromidae): Temporal patterns and sexual differences

Cited by 5 publications

References 68 publications

Cathemerality: a key temporal niche

Cathemerality: a key temporal niche

Sex-specific life-history strategies among immature jumping spiders: Differences in body parameters and behavior

Beyond polyphagy and opportunism: natural prey of hunting spiders in the canopy of apple trees

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