Do Spiders Share Webs?

BloomingMarvellous · #1 (**permalink**) 30-09-2009, 05:38 PM

I've been busy with watching Spiders over the last couple of weeks, and I'm sure a few of the webs I've seen are owned by more than just one Spider. Is there any truth in this?

Andestine · #2 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 01:06 PM

What an interesting question

Looks like some do. Here's an article about communal spiders:

Science News Online (5/8/99): Spider Solidarity Forever

But I'll leave it to the experts to tell you if this happens in Britain too.

Cheers,

Andestine

Rossco · #3 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 02:15 PM

There are several species that live communally in the tropics. I saw the web of one such communal species in Brazil last year and the web must have been 3-4m square - so pretty big. On such a web, thousands of individual spiders (all the same species) would live and feed communally. There is still an awful lot to learn about these species and the extent of their sociality.

As for communal species in the UK, I don't know of any, but I'd imagine there must be some species - especially the smaller ones where a degree of sociality exists.

BloomingMarvellous · #4 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 04:22 PM

Thanks for your replies.

I've had a good look around on the web today and couldn't really find anything connected to the UK.

Here's one web that I've been keeping an eye on, although I have never seen either of them feeding from the web I have seen them both use the web at different times.