TY - JOUR
T1 - Black widows on an urban heat island
T2 - extreme heat affects spider development and behaviour from egg to adulthood
AU - Johnson, J. Chadwick
AU - Garver, Emily
AU - Martin, Taylor
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank members of the Johnson lab for help in rearing spiders. We also thank Jake Martin and Colin Meiklejohn for assistance with the mixed modelling in R. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number DEB-1832016 , Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Program (CAP LTER) .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - Urbanization rapidly alters the environment, often leading to decreased biodiversity. One abiotic selection pressure uniquely associated with urbanization is the urban heat island (UHI) effect—wherein built structures (e.g. paved surfaces) capture heat during the day, retain it through the dark cycle and result in significantly elevated night-time temperatures. Relatively few studies have asked what effects the UHI might have on the development and behaviour of urban animals, and even fewer have asked this question of urban arthropod pests who rely on external heat sources and can experience explosive urban population growth rates. In particular, behavioural plasticity is often cited as a critical phenotype for organisms to thrive after rapid environmental change such as urbanization. Here, the relationship between elevated urban temperatures and behaviour was examined in the western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus. With regard to the UHI, young spiderlings raised at urban, elevated temperatures showed significantly reduced life span, reduced body mass, elevated web building, heightened voracity towards heterospecific prey and sibling cannibalism. In contrast, males studied later in the final prereproductive moults and raised at urban, elevated temperatures showed reduced life span, decreased adult body condition and increased voracity towards prey. We found no effects of temperature on late-stage male web building or courtship behaviour. UHI temperatures simulated in the laboratory present black widow spiders with a myriad of developmental problems, but our data suggest these spiders use temperature-sensitive behavioural plasticity to attempt to accommodate this stressor.
AB - Urbanization rapidly alters the environment, often leading to decreased biodiversity. One abiotic selection pressure uniquely associated with urbanization is the urban heat island (UHI) effect—wherein built structures (e.g. paved surfaces) capture heat during the day, retain it through the dark cycle and result in significantly elevated night-time temperatures. Relatively few studies have asked what effects the UHI might have on the development and behaviour of urban animals, and even fewer have asked this question of urban arthropod pests who rely on external heat sources and can experience explosive urban population growth rates. In particular, behavioural plasticity is often cited as a critical phenotype for organisms to thrive after rapid environmental change such as urbanization. Here, the relationship between elevated urban temperatures and behaviour was examined in the western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus. With regard to the UHI, young spiderlings raised at urban, elevated temperatures showed significantly reduced life span, reduced body mass, elevated web building, heightened voracity towards heterospecific prey and sibling cannibalism. In contrast, males studied later in the final prereproductive moults and raised at urban, elevated temperatures showed reduced life span, decreased adult body condition and increased voracity towards prey. We found no effects of temperature on late-stage male web building or courtship behaviour. UHI temperatures simulated in the laboratory present black widow spiders with a myriad of developmental problems, but our data suggest these spiders use temperature-sensitive behavioural plasticity to attempt to accommodate this stressor.
KW - behavioural plasticity
KW - prey abundance
KW - spider behaviour
KW - urban ecosystem
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U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.07.005
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.07.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85088512982
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 167
SP - 77
EP - 84
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
ER -