Water loss in two species of funnel web weaving spiders, Agelenopsis emertoni and A. potteri.

Abstract

The two closely related species, A. potteri and A. emertoni, exhibit different habitat preferences, A. potteri being the more broad niched of the two. However, A. potteri appeared to exhibit only slightly greater resistance to desiccation than A. emertoni, with high individual variation in each species. The funnel of the webs of both species, in addition to providing an efficient device for the detection of predators and prey, was found to have the effect of reducing temperature and increasing humidity in that portion of the web where the spider spends nearly all of its time.