Monday, August 12, 2019
Exhibit Hall, Kentucky International Convention Center
Background/Question/Methods
Little is known about the feeding ecology of the spiders in the Tidarren genus. There are two species (Tidarren sisyphoides and Tidarren haemorrhoidale) commonly found in the United States and both frequently build their tangled webs and nests around building foundations. Here we present a partial list of potential prey items photographed in the webs of the Tidarren spiders near porch lights at a house in Clarke County, Georgia (33,8882N, 83.2973W). We examined over 2,200 photographs of the spiders, their webs, and potential prey items trapped in the webs that we monitored nightly between 2011 and 2018 as part of Discover Life's moth project. We tried to identify all potential prey and present a list of them, documenting the role these spiders play in food web ecology. All images are on-line and can be viewed via Discover Life (www.discoverlife.org/moth). To date, we have tentatively identified 423 potential prey items.
Results/Conclusions
All of the potential prey items in the webs of the Tidarren spiders were arthropods. They included insects (401), other spiders (7), harvestmen (13), millipedes (1), and scorpions (1). The insects included Coleoptera (158), Lepidoptera (87), Hemiptera (81), Diptera (22, excluding small Dipterans), Hymenoptera (19), Orthoptera (14), Ephemeroptera (11), Neuroptera (8), and Plecoptera (1). Small Diptera were considered independently of larger Diptera species due to the innumerable conglomeration of midges and their parts around the nests of Tidarren. One Lepidoptera prey of particular interest was Hypoprepia fucosa (Subfamily Arctiinae), the Painted Lichen Moth which is an aposematic species. Our results indicate that members of the Tidarren genus are generalist arthropod predators.
Little is known about the feeding ecology of the spiders in the Tidarren genus. There are two species (Tidarren sisyphoides and Tidarren haemorrhoidale) commonly found in the United States and both frequently build their tangled webs and nests around building foundations. Here we present a partial list of potential prey items photographed in the webs of the Tidarren spiders near porch lights at a house in Clarke County, Georgia (33,8882N, 83.2973W). We examined over 2,200 photographs of the spiders, their webs, and potential prey items trapped in the webs that we monitored nightly between 2011 and 2018 as part of Discover Life's moth project. We tried to identify all potential prey and present a list of them, documenting the role these spiders play in food web ecology. All images are on-line and can be viewed via Discover Life (www.discoverlife.org/moth). To date, we have tentatively identified 423 potential prey items.
Results/Conclusions
All of the potential prey items in the webs of the Tidarren spiders were arthropods. They included insects (401), other spiders (7), harvestmen (13), millipedes (1), and scorpions (1). The insects included Coleoptera (158), Lepidoptera (87), Hemiptera (81), Diptera (22, excluding small Dipterans), Hymenoptera (19), Orthoptera (14), Ephemeroptera (11), Neuroptera (8), and Plecoptera (1). Small Diptera were considered independently of larger Diptera species due to the innumerable conglomeration of midges and their parts around the nests of Tidarren. One Lepidoptera prey of particular interest was Hypoprepia fucosa (Subfamily Arctiinae), the Painted Lichen Moth which is an aposematic species. Our results indicate that members of the Tidarren genus are generalist arthropod predators.