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Article
Open AccessMale mating strategies to counter sexual conflict in spiders
When sexual conflict selects for reproductive strategies that only benefit one of the sexes, evolutionary arms races may ensue. Female sexual cannibalism is an extreme manifestation of sexual conflict. Here we...
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Article
Sex-specific developmental trajectories in an extremely sexually size dimorphic spider
Adult body size, development time, and growth rates are components of organismal life histories, which crucially influence fitness and are subject to trade-offs. If selection is sex-specific, male and female d...
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Article
Open AccessExploring diversification drivers in golden orbweavers
Heterogeneity in species diversity is driven by the dynamics of speciation and extinction, potentially influenced by organismal and environmental factors. Here, we explore macroevolutionary trends on a phyloge...
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Article
The effect of genetics, diet, and social environment on adult male size in a sexually dimorphic spider
The role of developmental plasticity in the evolution and maintenance of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) has recently received more attention. We experimentally investigated the effects of genetics (pedigree), so...
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Open AccessMachine learning approaches identify male body size as the most accurate predictor of species richness
A major challenge in biodiversity science is to understand the factors contributing to the variability of species richness –the number of different species in a community or region - among comparable taxonomic...
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Article
Open AccessThe transcriptome of Darwin’s bark spider silk glands predicts proteins contributing to dragline silk toughness
Darwin’s bark spider (Caerostris darwini) produces giant orb webs from dragline silk that can be twice as tough as other silks, making it the toughest biological material. This extreme toughness comes from increa...
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Open AccessBiogeography of the Caribbean Cyrtognatha spiders
Island systems provide excellent arenas to test evolutionary hypotheses pertaining to gene flow and diversification of dispersal-limited organisms. Here we focus on an orbweaver spider genus Cyrtognatha (Tetragna...
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Article
Cross-sex genetic correlation does not extend to sexual size dimorphism in spiders
Males and females are often subjected to different selection pressures for homologous traits, resulting in sex-specific optima. Because organismal attributes usually share their genetic architectures, sex-spec...
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Article
Different patterns of behavioral variation across and within species of spiders with differing degrees of urbanization
Behavioral characteristics importantly shape an animals’ ability to adapt to changing conditions. The notion that behavioral flexibility facilitates exploitation of urban environments has received mixed suppor...
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Open AccessThe Nephila clavipes genome highlights the diversity of spider silk genes and their complex expression
Benjamin Voight and colleagues report the annotated genome of the golden orb-weaver spider. They describe 28 spider silk genes (spidroins), characterize their expression in distinct silk gland types and identi...
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Open AccessEnvironmental DNA in subterranean biology: range extension and taxonomic implications for Proteus
Europe’s obligate cave-dwelling amphibian Proteus anguinus inhabits subterranean waters of the north-western Balkan Peninsula. Because only fragments of its habitat are accessible to humans, this endangered salam...
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Open AccessRapid dissemination of taxonomic discoveries based on DNA barcoding and morphology
The taxonomic impediment is characterized by dwindling classical taxonomic expertise, and slow pace of revisionary work, thus more rapid taxonomic assessments are needed. Here we pair rapid DNA barcoding metho...
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Article
Open AccessPotential costs of heterospecific sexual interactions in golden orbweb spiders (Nephila spp.)
Though not uncommon in other animals, heterospecific mating is rarely reported in arachnids. We investigated sexual interactions among four closely related and syntopical African golden orbweb spiders, Nephila in...
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Open AccessThe evolution of genital complexity and mating rates in sexually size dimorphic spiders
Genital diversity may arise through sexual conflict over polyandry, where male genital features function to manipulate female mating frequency against her interest. Correlated genital evolution across animal g...
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Open AccessCoevolution of female and male genital components to avoid genital size mismatches in sexually dimorphic spiders
In most animal groups, it is unclear how body size variation relates to genital size differences between the sexes. While most morphological features tend to scale with total somatic size, this does not necess...
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Article
Open AccessSpider behaviors include oral sexual encounters
Several clades of spiders whose females evolved giant sizes are known for extreme sexual behaviors such as sexual cannibalism, opportunistic mating, mate-binding, genital mutilation, plugging and emasculation....
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Evolutionary Pathways Maintaining Extreme Female-Biased Sexual Size Dimorphism: Convergent Spider Cases Defy Common Patterns
Several animal and plant lineages exhibit pronounced sexual size dimorphism (SSD). Here, we review the evolution of female-biased, extreme SSD (hereafter eSSD; females at least twice male size) in two model sp...
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Article
Disentangling the Size and Shape Components of Sexual Dimorphism
Many organisms are sexually dimorphic, reflecting sex-specific selection pressures. But although sexual dimorphism may consist of different variables from size to shape and physiology, most research emphasizes...
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Article
Eunuch supremacy: evolution of post-mating spider emasculation
Emasculation—males becoming effectively sterile by self-removing their genitals—has long been considered a peculiar evolutionary phenomenon with unknown function, taxonomically restricted to few spiders and fl...
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Development and growth in synanthropic species: plasticity and constraints
Urbanization poses serious extinction risks, yet some species thrive in urban environments. This may be due to a pronounced developmental plasticity in these taxa, since phenotypically, plastic organisms may b...
