Overview

In this lavishly illustrated, first-ever book on how spider webs are built, function, and evolved, William Eberhard provides a comprehensive overview of spider functional morphology and behavior related to web building, and of the surprising physical agility and mental abilities of orb weavers. For instance, one spider spins more than three precisely spaced, morphologically complex spiral attachments per second for up to fifteen minutes at a time. Spiders even adjust the mechanical properties of their famously strong silken lines to different parts of their webs and different environments, and make dramatic modifications in orb designs to adapt to available spaces. This extensive adaptive flexibility, involving decisions influenced by up to sixteen different cues, is unexpected in such small, supposedly simple animals. As Eberhard reveals, the extraordinary diversity of webs includes ingenious solutions to gain access to prey in esoteric habitats, from blazing hot and shifting sand dunes (to capture ants) to the surfaces of tropical lakes (to capture water striders). Some webs are nets that are cast onto prey, while others form baskets into which the spider flicks prey. Some aerial webs are tramways used by spiders searching for chemical cues from their prey below, while others feature landing sites for flying insects and spiders where the spider then stalks its prey. In some webs, long trip lines are delicately sustained just above the ground by tiny rigid silk poles. Stemming from the author’s more than five decades observing spider webs, this book will be the definitive reference for years to come.

Full Product Details

Author:   William Eberhard
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
ISBN:  

9780226534602

ISBN 10:   022653460
Pages:   816
Publication Date:   01 December 2020
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 A foreign world: life tied to silk lines 1.3 A brief history of spider web studies 1.4 Emphasis on behavior 1.5 The scope of this book and tactics in presentation 1.6 Evolutionary history and phylogeny 1.7 Terminology and other procedural matters 1.8 Acknowledgments Chapter 2. The hardware of web-building spiders: morphology, silk, and behavior 2.1. Introduction 2.2 Silk glands and silk 2.3 Spinnerets as high-precision instruments 2.4 Leg morphology and behavior: grasping lines precisely and securely 2.5 Cutting lines and recycling silk 2.6 How spiders avoid adhering to their own webs: a mystery partly solved 2.7 Central nervous system basis for web construction 2.8 Summary Chapter 3. Functions of orb web designs 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Correcting common misconceptions about orb webs 3.3 How orbs function 3.4 Summary Chapter 4. Putting pieces together: tradeoffs and remaining puzzles 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Optimal orb designs: tradeoffs between functions are difficult to measure 4.3 Multiple trap design: a new way to view orb webs 4.4 Tensions and stresses 4.5 Relative numbers of radii and sticky spiral loops 4.6 Testing visibility and stopping functions: the extreme case of trunk orbs 4.7 Correlations between spider size and orb design? 4.8 Spider positions, attack behavior, and up-down asymmetries in orbs 4.9 Remaining puzzles 4.10 Non-orb webs 4.11 Evolutionary responses by insects? A neglected aspect of prey capture 4.12 Summary (including part of chapter 3) Chapter 5. The building behavior of non-orb weavers 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Order of lines and other higher-level patterns5.3 Lower-level patterns: leg movements and manipulation of lines5.4 Stereotyped behavior in non-orb construction5.5 Adjustments to substrate-imposed constraints 5.6 Managing swaths of fine lines 5.7 SummaryBox 5.1 The funnel web diplurid Linothele macrothelifera Chapter 6. The building behavior of orb-weavers 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Simplifications for smoother reading 6.3 Behavior of two araneids 6.4 Senility in orb construction: a new frontier? 6.5 Detailed movements 6.6 General patterns 6.7 Summary Chapter 7. Cues directing web construction behavior 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Classifying the cues 7.3 Cues for sticky spiral construction 7.4 Temporary spiral 7.5 Hub 7.6 Stabilimentum construction 7.7 Radii, frames, and anchor lines 7.8 Early radii, and frames and anchor lines: determining web size, shape, and design 7.9 To build or not to build: triggering orb construction and destruction 7.10 Cues that trigger transitions between stages of orb construction 7.11 Other stimuli that spiders can sense but that are not (yet) known to guide orb construction 7.12 Hints of abilities: follow circular paths and sense radius lengths 7.13 Effects of psychotropic drugs on orb construction 7.14 Coordinating different adjustments to different cues 7.15 The (limited) role of simulations in understanding orb construction behavior 7.16 A missing link: translating cues into attachment sites 7.17 Summarizing the behavioral challenges met by orb weavers 7.18 Independence (?) of the spider's responses 7.19 Changes in responses to cues: learning and maturation 7.20 Cues guiding the construction of non-orbs 7.21 Summary Chapter 8. Web ecology and website selection 8.1 Introduction: what is and is not included 8.2 Webs and ecological foraging theories 8.3 What is enough? Fast lane and slow lane spiders 8.4 Processes that produce habitat biases 8.5 A general correlation between website selectivity and web design flexibility? 8.6 Website tenacity, web durability, and recycling 8.7 Web durability 8.8 Limited by websites? Possible competition for prey and websites 8.9 Problems in attempts to study cues that guide website choices 8.10 Time of day: day webs vs. night webs 8.11 Summary Chapter 9. Evolutionary patterns: an ancient success that produced high diversity and rampant convergence 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Patterns in the diversity of webs 9.3 Consequences of the failure of the prey specialist hypothesis for understanding diversity and convergence 9.4 What is a sheet web? Problems inherited from previous imprecision 9.5 Mygalomorphs: similar patterns of diversity and rampant convergence in a different world 9.6 Diversity of relations with insects 9.7 Lack of miniaturization effects 9.8 Paths not followed: alternative web forms in other animals 9.9 Summary and a new synthesis Box 9.1 The most spectacular convergence of all: Fecenia Box 9.2 The most spectacular divergence of all: Theridiidae Box 9.3 Sand castles: extreme modifications of Seothyra henscheli webs to shifting sand Box 9.4 Relation between web design and silk properties: stiff silk in Uroctea durandi Chapter 10. Ontogeny, modularity, and the evolution of web building 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Web ontogeny and evolution 10.3 Early web evolution 10.4 The behavior patterns used to build early webs 10.5 Evolution of later non-orb webs 10.6 Inconsistent evolutionary trends in non-orb webs 10.7 Diversity in non-orbs that results from behavioral stability 10.8 The (probably) monophyletic origin of orb webs 10.9 Evolutionary changes in orb designs 10.10 Post-orb web evolution in Orbiculariae 10.11 Coevolution between attack behavior and web design (and its lack) 10.12 What didn't happen, possible synapomorphies, and further puzzles 10.13 Modularity and adaptive flexibility 10.14 Modules and evolutionary transitions in web-building behavior 10.15 Summary References Index

Reviews

There is only one comparable book on this topic that was published over thirty years ago, and it is not comprehensive. Eberhard's book is an extensive, encyclopedic review of what is known (and unknown) about spider webs today. It also provides many original observations from Eberhard himself. --Rainer F. Foelix, author of Biology of Spiders This is a wonderful book. In it Eberhard explores the mechanical and evolutionary aspects of spider webs from all sides. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs of webs appearing throughout. Each chapter has a down-to-earth summary that repeats the main points of the chapter. Eberhard is not afraid to rail against the many errors that infect previous work on spiders and webs, including adultophilia (the tendency of ignore the webs of juvenile spiders), typology (the eagerness to describe 'the' spider and its web when in reality there are many variations in the webs of any one species), and many more shortcomings. But by far the strength of the book is Eberhard's ability to tell his readers what is needed on topics A to Z if we are to test hypotheses further. This willingness to lay out predictions that are derived from particular hypotheses on puzzling behaviors that have not been checked makes the book a gold mine for students of spider webs and indeed for all animal behaviorists. --John Alcock, Arizona State University, author of Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach A comprehensive book on all aspects of spider webs is long overdue, and Eberhard is one of the few biologists--if not the only one--who has the knowledge, passion, and expertise to write such a book. Very thorough and detailed, Spider Webs is of great importance to specialists in its field, especially since it not only summarizes previously published studies, but because it also presents new ideas and views on structure, construction, function, and evolution of spider webs and their (potential) relevance to many different fields of biology. --Samuel Zschokke, University of Basel, Switzerland Spider Webs provides both an authoritative and unique synthesis of research and still-to-be-addressed questions on spider web biology. There is no one better equipped to write a book on this subject than Eberhard. It will be a major contribution to the fields of ecology, evolution, and behavior, providing new information, new syntheses, and new insights on a broad range of topics. --Brent Opell, Virginia Tech

""This is a wonderful book. In it Eberhard explores the mechanical and evolutionary aspects of spider webs from all sides. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs of webs appearing throughout. Each chapter has a down-to-earth summary that repeats the main points of the chapter. Eberhard is not afraid to rail against the many errors that infect previous work on spiders and webs, including adultophilia (the tendency to ignore the webs of juvenile spiders), typology (the eagerness to describe 'the' spider and its web when in reality there are many variations in the webs of any one species), and many more shortcomings. But by far the strength of the book is Eberhard's ability to tell his readers what is needed on topics A to Z if we are to test hypotheses further. This willingness to lay out predictions that are derived from particular hypotheses on puzzling behaviors that have not been checked makes the book a gold mine for students of spider webs and indeed for all animal behaviorists.""--John Alcock, Arizona State University, author of ""Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach"" ""There is only one comparable book on this topic that was published over thirty years ago, and it is not comprehensive. Eberhard's book is an extensive, encyclopedic review of what is known (and unknown) about spider webs today. It also provides many original observations from Eberhard himself.""--Rainer F. Foelix, author of ""Biology of Spiders"" ""Spider Webs provides both an authoritative and unique synthesis of research and still-to-be-addressed questions on spider web biology. There is no one better equipped to write a book on this subject than Eberhard. It will be a major contribution to the fields of ecology, evolution, and behavior, providing new information, new syntheses, and new insights on a broad range of topics.""--Brent Opell, Virginia Tech ""A comprehensive book on all aspects of spider webs is long overdue, and Eberhard is one of the few biologists--if not the only one--who has the knowledge, passion, and expertise to write such a book. Very thorough and detailed, Spider Webs is of great importance to specialists in its field, especially since it not only summarizes previously published studies, but also presents new ideas and views on structure, construction, function, and evolution of spider webs and their (potential) relevance to many different fields of biology.""--Samuel Zschokke, University of Basel, Switzerland

Author Information

William Eberhard is an emeritus scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and emeritus professor at the Universidad de Costa Rica.

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