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Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity

Gravity is very important for many organisms, including web-building spiders. Probably the best approach to study the relevance of gravity on organisms is to bring them to the International Space Station. Here, we describe the results of such an experiment where two juvenile Trichonephila clavipes (...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zschokke, Samuel, Countryman, Stefanie, Cushing, Paula E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33270151
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01708-8
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author Zschokke, Samuel
Countryman, Stefanie
Cushing, Paula E.
author_facet Zschokke, Samuel
Countryman, Stefanie
Cushing, Paula E.
author_sort Zschokke, Samuel
collection PubMed
description Gravity is very important for many organisms, including web-building spiders. Probably the best approach to study the relevance of gravity on organisms is to bring them to the International Space Station. Here, we describe the results of such an experiment where two juvenile Trichonephila clavipes (L.) (Araneae, Nephilidae) spiders were observed over a 2-month period in zero gravity and two control spiders under otherwise identical conditions on Earth. During that time, the spiders and their webs were photographed every 5 min. Under natural conditions, Trichonephila spiders build asymmetric webs with the hub near the upper edge of the web, and they always orient themselves downwards when sitting on the hub whilst waiting for prey. As these asymmetries are considered to be linked to gravity, we expected the spiders experiencing no gravity to build symmetric webs and to show a random orientation when sitting on the hub. We found that most, but not all, webs built in zero gravity were indeed quite symmetric. Closer analysis revealed that webs built when the lights were on were more asymmetric (with the hub near the lights) than webs built when the lights were off. In addition, spiders showed a random orientation when the lights were off but faced away from the lights when they were on. We conclude that in the absence of gravity, the direction of light can serve as an orientation guide for spiders during web building and when waiting for prey on the hub.
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spelling pubmed-77169252020-12-04 Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity Zschokke, Samuel Countryman, Stefanie Cushing, Paula E. Naturwissenschaften Original Paper Gravity is very important for many organisms, including web-building spiders. Probably the best approach to study the relevance of gravity on organisms is to bring them to the International Space Station. Here, we describe the results of such an experiment where two juvenile Trichonephila clavipes (L.) (Araneae, Nephilidae) spiders were observed over a 2-month period in zero gravity and two control spiders under otherwise identical conditions on Earth. During that time, the spiders and their webs were photographed every 5 min. Under natural conditions, Trichonephila spiders build asymmetric webs with the hub near the upper edge of the web, and they always orient themselves downwards when sitting on the hub whilst waiting for prey. As these asymmetries are considered to be linked to gravity, we expected the spiders experiencing no gravity to build symmetric webs and to show a random orientation when sitting on the hub. We found that most, but not all, webs built in zero gravity were indeed quite symmetric. Closer analysis revealed that webs built when the lights were on were more asymmetric (with the hub near the lights) than webs built when the lights were off. In addition, spiders showed a random orientation when the lights were off but faced away from the lights when they were on. We conclude that in the absence of gravity, the direction of light can serve as an orientation guide for spiders during web building and when waiting for prey on the hub. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020-12-03 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7716925/ /pubmed/33270151 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01708-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Zschokke, Samuel
Countryman, Stefanie
Cushing, Paula E.
Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity
title Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity
title_full Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity
title_fullStr Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity
title_full_unstemmed Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity
title_short Spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity
title_sort spiders in space—orb-web-related behaviour in zero gravity
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33270151
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01708-8
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