2018/08/01 by Marija Majer, Christina Holm, Yael Lubin +1 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Plant and animal studies #Foraging #Niche #Predation #Biology #Competition (biology) #Ecology #Biomass (ecology) #Niche differentiation #Food web #Optimal foraging theory
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41598-018-30199-x
openalex publication_date 2018/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Group living animals invariably risk resource competition. Cooperation in foraging, however, may benefit individuals in groups by facilitating an increase in dietary niche. To test this, we performed a comparative study of social and solitary spider species. Three independently derived social species of Stegodyphus (Eresidae) occupy semi-arid savannas and overlap with three solitary congeners. We estimated potential prey availability in the environment and prey acquisition by spiders in their capture webs. We calculated dietary niche width (prey size) and breadth (taxonomic range) to compare resource use for these six species, and investigated the relationships between group size and average individual capture web production, prey biomass intake rate and variance in biomass intake. Cooperative foraging increased dietary niche width and breadth by foraging opportunistically, including both larger prey and a wider taxonomic range of prey in the diet. Individual capture web production decreased with increasing group size, indicating energetic benefits of cooperation, and variance in individual intake rate was reduced. However, individual biomass intake also decreased with increasing group size. While cooperative foraging did not completely offset resource competition among group members, it may contribute to sustaining larger groups by reducing costs of web production, increasing the dietary niche and reducing the variance in prey capture.