Colorful markings allow researchers to tell individual spiders apart when studying sociability and personality in spiders.AARHUS UNIVERSITY, LENA GRINDSTED
Living with a familiar crew tends to strengthen spiders’ personality traits, according to a study published this week (March 26) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Kate Laskowski of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin and Jonathan Pruitt of Pittsburgh University studied social spiders (Stegodyphus mimosarum) that were allowed to mingle amongst themselves for up to four weeks.
Laskowski and Pruitt found that certain individuals in socialized groups were more likely to behave boldly in the face of simulated predators or more aggressively toward prey. Their findings support the social niche specialization hypothesis, which posits that animals living together tend to differentiate their behaviors to prevent competition among members and to increase overall group productivity.
“We show that living ...
