Social Spiders Divide Labor According to Body Size and Condition

At first glance, colonies of thousands of social spiders all look the same and are busy with the same tasks. Not so, say researchers Carl Keiser and Devin Jones of the University of Pittsburgh, after carefully studying various gatherings of Stegodyphus dumicola social spiders of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa.

They found that a particular spider’s body size and condition indicate which task it generally performs within a colony. Spiders with smaller bodies were more likely to help with web building and maintenance. Those who were in better condition tended not to capture prey, while those with lower body condition were more likely to be busy with foraging.

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Source: entomologytoday.org