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THE ACCLIMATION TIMES OF JORO SPIDERS IN HIGH TRAFFIC VERSUS LOW TRAFIC AREAS

Abstract

Joro spiders (Trichonephila clavata) are spiders that are known for their impressively large webs. The webs act as an extended phenotype, increasing the spider’s ability to sense vibration and gather information on its surrounding environment. The webs are a critical component of how spiders react to the world around them. Joro spiders react to a presence in or around their web in several ways, including web shaking, running to the edge of the web, or remaining still. This leads to the question: Do spiders in areas with lots of pedestrian traffic have different reactions to disturbance than spiders in more natural or secluded areas, and does the amount of traffic change the time it takes for them to acclimatize to a given disturbance. We hypothesize that Joro spiders in high traffic areas will acclimatize faster. In this experiment, we tested reactions to web disturbance of Joro spiders by plucking the web of each spider at five minute intervals. There was a trend towards faster acclimatization in spiders in high traffic areas, but there was no significant difference (p = 0.08) between the low traffic (mean = 5.82) and high traffic (mean = 4.53) spiders’ rates of acclimatization.

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