Insect form vision as one potential shaping force of spider web decoration design

Cheng, Ren-Chung; Yang, En‐Cheng; Lin, Chia‐Chi; Herberstein, Marie E.; Tso, I‐Min

doi:10.1242/jeb.037291

Cited by 38 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…Relationships within Orbiculariae were from Sensenig et al34. Finally, the topology among Argiope comes from Elices et al35 and Cheng et al36. Ancestral values for basal clades were reconstructed using Mesquite v2.75 under squared change parsimony37.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequential origin in the high performance properties of orb spider dragline silk

Blackledge

Pérez‐Rigueiro

Plaza

et al. 2012

Sci Rep

102

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Major ampullate (MA) dragline silk supports spider orb webs, combining strength and extensibility in the toughest biomaterial. MA silk evolved ~376 MYA and identifying how evolutionary changes in proteins influenced silk mechanics is crucial for biomimetics, but is hindered by high spinning plasticity. We use supercontraction to remove that variation and characterize MA silk across the spider phylogeny. We show that mechanical performance is conserved within, but divergent among, major lineages, evolving in correlation with discrete changes in proteins. Early MA silk tensile strength improved rapidly with the origin of GGX amino acid motifs and increased repetitiveness. Tensile strength then maximized in basal entelegyne spiders, ~230 MYA. Toughness subsequently improved through increased extensibility within orb spiders, coupled with the origin of a novel protein (MaSp2). Key changes in MA silk proteins therefore correlate with the sequential evolution high performance orb spider silk and could aid design of biomimetic fibers.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequential origin in the high performance properties of orb spider dragline silk

Blackledge

Pérez‐Rigueiro

Plaza

et al. 2012

Sci Rep

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…of silk biology (Albertson et al 2014;Blamires et al 2012;Tso 2004;Zhang et al 2013), sexual selection (Elgar et al 1996;Fromhage 2012;Herberstein et al 2012;Nessler et al 2009;Welke and Schneider 2012), visual ecology and signal evolution (Bruce et al 2005;Cheng and Tso 2007;Cheng et al 2010;Fig. 1 Female biased sexual dimorphism and diversity of orb weaving spider somatic morphologies: sexual size and shape dimorphism in Argiope pulchella (a) and Herennia etruscilla (b); sexual size but not shape dimorphism in Nephila pilipes (c) and Argiope bruennichi (d); e female araneids with modified adbominal shapes.…”

Section: Species Level Analyses: Argiopinaementioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling the Size and Shape Components of Sexual Dimorphism

Cheng

Kuntner

2015

Evol Biol

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Many organisms are sexually dimorphic, reflecting sex-specific selection pressures. But although sexual dimorphism may consist of different variables from size to shape and physiology, most research emphasizes a single aspect of sexual dimorphism, notably size, without specifying its components and their relationship. Among terrestrial animals, spiders exhibit most extreme sex-specific differences in size and abdominal shape, and therefore represent ideal models to address this question. Here, we dissect sexual dimorphism in spiders at two phylogenetic hierarchical levels. At the species level, we employ comparative phylogenetic tests to explore the association between sexual shape dimorphism (SShD) and sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in the orbweb clade Argiopinae. At the genus level, we then explore such patterns on a phylogeny of orb weavers (Araneoidea). Female argiopines had more diverse abdominal morphotypes than the males and the abdominal shape evolution was only poorly correlated between the sexes. Phylogenetic and comparative data suggested that evolution of SShD in argiopines was related to geographic history, but that sexually shape monomorphic cases arose through selection for male size, perhaps acting against fecundity selection. While in argiopines there was no clear association between SShD and SSD, we detected a significant correlation in all orb weavers at the genus level. The shape and the size components of sexual dimorphism may thus respond independently to selection pressures, but at certain phylogenetic levels SSD may be a prerequisite for SShD. Research on other animal groups is needed to establish whether the here detected patterns on spiders are general.

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“…Predators may only need to produce salient signal characteristics that exploit the sensory biases of their prey (Cheng et al. ; Nelson et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roles of Colour and Shape in Pollinator Deception in the Orchid Mantis Hymenopus coronatus

O’Hanlon

2014

Ethology

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The orchid mantis Hymenopus coronatus (Insecta: Mantodea) is a deceptive predator that attracts pollinators as prey. Their resemblance to a flower has given rise to the hypothesis that they are flower mimics. However, floral mimicry as a predatory strategy, and in particular, how predatory floral mimicry functions at a mechanistic level is poorly understood. Two main morphological characteristics are thought to make orchid mantises appear similar to flowers and thus attractive to pollinators: (1) their ‘flower‐like’ white colouration and (2) their ‘petal‐shaped’ expansions of exoskeleton on their mid‐femur and hind femur (femoral lobes). I investigated the contribution of these colour and shape characteristics to pollinator attraction using artificial orchid mantis models. Models with the ‘flower‐like’ white colouration of the orchid mantis had higher rates of pollinator inspection than brown models. Manipulating overall body shape by removing or changing the orientation of the ‘petal‐shaped’ femoral lobes did not affect the attractiveness of models. As certain flower‐like characteristics (symmetry and petals) did not affect the attractiveness of models, pollinators may not necessarily cognitively misclassify orchid mantises as flowers. Rather, mantises may be exploiting sensory biases of their pollinator prey, and their UV‐absorbing white colouration may be sufficient to lure pollinators. The effectiveness of using artificial models established here provides a basis for future research into orchid mantis morphology and the fine‐scale interactions between orchid mantises and pollinators.

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Insect form vision as one potential shaping force of spider web decoration design

Cited by 38 publications

References 74 publications

Sequential origin in the high performance properties of orb spider dragline silk

Sequential origin in the high performance properties of orb spider dragline silk

Disentangling the Size and Shape Components of Sexual Dimorphism

The Roles of Colour and Shape in Pollinator Deception in the Orchid Mantis Hymenopus coronatus

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