Abstract:
Loss and fragmentation of rainforests have led to serious
implications on the survival of many species, ofen leading to
population decline, or sometimes local extinction. Spiders are
key inhabitants of rainforest ecosystems and, in ever changing
tropical landscapes, their response to habitat change would
be an important factor in deciding their fate. Web building
spiders rely solely on their webs to entrap prey. Architectural
and other properties of the web would therefore be expected
to have a strong infuence on the efciency of prey capture.
Limited evidence from captive studies has demonstrated
that spiders alter web properties in response to changes
in environmental conditions [1–5]. Some reported facts of
interest are as follows: web size is infuenced by the intensity
of hunger such that starved spiders build larger webs than
satiated spiders [6] microclimatic conditions around the
web infuence mesh size [5] properties of the silk thread
vary with changes in prey availability [7–11]. Accordingly,
we would expect habitat change, from forest to nonforest,
to bring about changes in web properties of the rainforest
spiders.
