Spider Behaviour
Flexibility and Versatility

Explores the extraordinary variation and plasticity found in all areas of spider behaviour including foraging, web building, communication and courtship.

Marie Elisabeth Herberstein (Edited by)

9780521765299, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 January 2011

416 pages, 32 b/w illus. 16 colour illus. 5 tables
24.4 x 17 x 2.4 cm, 0.95 kg

'… well written and very well edited … I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, and recommend it for anyone wishing to gain a good understanding of spiders in general, and their behaviours in particular.' B. Staffan Lindgren, Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Canada

Spiders are often underestimated as suitable behavioural models because of the general belief that due to their small brains their behaviour is innate and mostly invariable. Challenging this assumption, this fascinating book shows that rather than having a limited behavioural repertoire, spiders show surprising cognitive abilities, changing their behaviour to suit their situational needs. The team of authors unravels the considerable intra-specific as well as intra-individual variability and plasticity in different behaviours ranging from foraging and web building to communication and courtship. An introductory chapter on spider biology, systematics and evolution provides the reader with the necessary background information to understand the discussed behaviours and helps to place them into an evolutionary context. Highlighting an under-explored area of behaviour, this book will provide new ideas for behavioural researchers and students unfamiliar with spiders as well as a valuable resource for those already working in this intriguing field.

1. Introduction Marie E. Herberstein and Anne Wignall
2. Foraging behaviour Ximena J. Nelson and Robert R. Jackson
3. Web building behaviour Marie E. Herberstein and I-Min Tso
4. Anti-predator behaviour Ximena J. Nelson and Robert R. Jackson
5. Communication Gabriele Uhl and Damian Elias
6. Deception Marie E. Herberstein and Anne Wignall
7. Mating behaviour and sexual selection Jutta Schneider and Maydianne Andrade
8. Group living in spiders: cooperative breeding and coloniality Trine Bilde and Yael Lubin
9. Plasticity, learning and cognition Elizabeth Jakob, Christa Skow and Skye Long
10. Kleptoparasitic spiders - a special case of behavioural plasticity Mary Whitehouse
Index.

Subject Areas: Insects [entomology PSVT7], Zoology: Invertebrates [PSVT], Animal behaviour [PSVP]