The capture rate of prey in orb, sheet, and tangle spider webs.

Abstract

Arthropods are the most abundant phylum but the order Araneus (spiders) is one of the most abundant species. Spiders have a silk gland called spinnerets, which they use to create their webs; but not all spiders use their silk to make a web. The three main classifications of spider webs are sheet, orb, and tangle. Since there is a diversity of webs, I wanted to see if the web type has any correlation to the type of prey captured and the number of prey that are captured. Therefore, I hypothesize that the height and web type are two factors that influence the number of prey caught and the type of prey captured. Small prey, flying prey, crawling prey, other spiders being captured were all statistically significant based on web type. There was a correlation between crawling prey and surface area of webs and a trend between other spiders being captured and surface area of webs. Also, there was a correlation between the surface area of the web and the total amount of prey captured. The height, angle, and surface area were signficantly based on the web type. In result, my hypothesis was supported that the height and web type did affect the amount of prey and what type of prey was captured.