Search results for "Reproductive state"

Reproductive state and care giving in Stegodyphus (Araneae: Eresidae) and the implications for the evolution of sociality

2002

Abstract Cooperative brood care is a rare phenomenon in spiders and is restricted to a few social species, including three in the genus Stegodyphus. Brood care in Stegodyphus begins with regurgitation feeding followed by matriphagy: the young consume the body fluids of their mother causing her to die quickly. Whether such an extreme form of maternal care can become a communal task should depend on physiological or historical preconditions. I investigated whether femaleStegodyphus lineatus feed young or allow matriphagy according to their own reproductive state. Broods of young of two age classes (2 or 10 days after hatching) were isolated or fostered out to adult females that were unmated, …