This research is a continuation of the study we did on the feeding ecology of Tidarren sisyphoides, a cobweb weaver spider that frequently builds its tangled webs and nests around building foundations. Here we compare the prey data collected November 2016 - December 2017 from the webs and nests of T. sisyphoides, to survey data of all arthropods attracted to the porch lights at that location during that same time period. We hypothesize that, due to the nature of its web and feeding habits, T. sisyphoides is opportunistic - taking prey in similar proportions to what is available. By comparing captured prey to available prey, a decent measure of prey choice can be determined. The data for this research project was collected as part of Discover Life's moth project in Clarke County, Georgia (33.8882N, 83.2973W). All images are on-line and can be viewed via Discover Life (www.discoverlife.org/moth).
Results/Conclusions
Over 1,400 images of the webs of T. sisyphoides were analyzed for the captured-prey portion of the study. All of the prey items were arthropods with 11 Orders represented: Coleoptera (105), Lepidoptera (68), Hemiptera (53), Diptera (14), Orthoptera (9), Opliones (7), Neuroptera (7), Hymenoptera (6), Ephemeroptera (6), Araneae (2), and Class Diploda (1). Preliminary results comparing what T. sisyphoides was capturing and what was seen during the arthropod surveys appear to support our hypothesis that T. sisyphoides is opportunistic.