Nutrient-mediated architectural plasticity of a predatory trap

Nutrients such as protein may be actively sought by foraging animals. Many predators exhibit foraging plasticity, but how their foraging strategies are affected when faced with nutrient deprivation is largely unknown. In spiders, the assimilation of protein into silk may be in conflict with somatic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-01, Vol.8 (1), p.e54558-e54558
Main Authors: Blamires, Sean J, Tso, I-Min
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alanine
Amino acids
Amino Acids - metabolism
Amino Acids - physiology
Animal behavior
Animals
Araneae
Araneidae
Architecture
Argiope
Biology
Deprivation
Eating - physiology
Feeding
Forage
Forages
Glycine
Nutrients
Plastic properties
Plasticity
Predators
Predatory Behavior - physiology
Proline
Proteins - metabolism
Silk
Species
Spiders
Veterinary Science
Web building
Webs
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Summary:Nutrients such as protein may be actively sought by foraging animals. Many predators exhibit foraging plasticity, but how their foraging strategies are affected when faced with nutrient deprivation is largely unknown. In spiders, the assimilation of protein into silk may be in conflict with somatic processes so we predicted web building to be affected under protein depletion. To assess the influence of protein intake on foraging plasticity we fed the orb-web spiders Argiope aemula and Cyclosa mulmeinensis high, low or no protein solutions over 10 days and allowed them to build webs. We compared post-feeding web architectural components and major ampullate (MA) silk amino acid compositions. We found that the number of radii in webs increased in both species when fed high protein solutions. Mesh size increased in A. aemula when fed a high protein solution. MA silk proline and alanine compositions varied in each species with contrasting variations in alanine between the two species. Glycine compositions only varied in C. mulmeinensis silk. No spiders significantly lost or gained mass on any feeding treatment, so they did not sacrifice somatic maintenance for amino acid investment in silk. Our results show that the amount of protein taken in significantly affects the foraging decisions of trap-building predators, such as orb web spiders. Nevertheless, the subtle differences found between species in the association between protein intake, the amino acids invested in silk and web architectural plasticity show that the influence of protein deprivation on specific foraging strategies differs among different spiders.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0054558