Studying Orb- Weaver Spider Behavior

[papadking]

Hello,

I am an 11th grade student conducting a science research project, and would greatly appreciate some expert feedback. My project is about tracking the dietary behavior of an orb- weaver spider. I have the spider in a big, transparent, plastic container in which it has built a web. My plan was to introduce an insect which travels only on land (desn't fly) and see how the spider reacted, in terms of having its meal. I was wondering what could do if the spider does not take the bug for food. Should I give it a creature to eat or will it be okay without food for a while? How should I provide it with water if it does not eat? Is the envirmoent/ habitat okay for the spider as long as I am allowing sufficient air to go in?

Thank You for all the help in advance.

[deleted-71607]

That is a good start, Papadking. It takes insight to think of the possible problems that your research can have. Before proceeding with your actual set-up, it may help if you can decide on a hypothesis that you are going to test for your project. That may help you decide on how long you will observe your spider, how many spiders you need to have, etc.

Please feel free to keep on asking your questions. We are here to assist you.

CLKline

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

You may be interested in this article:

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1636/C ... lCode=arac
This is a Care Sheet from Carolina Biological:
http://www.carolina.com/category/teache ... spiders.do

If you have questions you can’t answer, try contacting a nearby natural history museum. For example if you live in northern California, try visiting or contacting the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. They have several spider esperts on staff. Their website is:
http://www.calacademy.org/

I hope this helps. Have fun with the project!

Best regards,

Barrett L. Tomlinson

[MelissaB]

Hi,

I have a friend who kept orb-web spiders for her dissertation research. The good news is that it's very easy. As long as you are occasionally opening the plastic container to give it food, it will have plenty of air--spiders do not use that much oxygen! I'm fairly sure that spiders get their water from their food, too, but it might be a good idea (for humidity reasons) to mist the web every once in a while (you should be able to find a mister at your local plant store). I would do this maybe 1-2x per week.

Spiders eat a lot less than we would if we were that size (in fact, some people think that mammals can't be that small BECAUSE we would need so much food). So the spider should be okay with about 1 slightly less than spider-sized prey item a week (or several smaller items). I am not sure whether or not an Araneid will eat ground-based prey, but I suspect it will and that you won't need to worry about feeding it something else. But, if it doesn't eat whatever you're feeding it, you might consider getting Drosophila to put in its cage with it. They might be a little small, but as long as you put four or five in at a time, your spider should be fine.

[papadking]

Thank You for all of your help!!!!!

I had one final question:

How many bugs do you think I should try in the total expeiment to consider it "research"? Spiders don't eat much, so it is difficult, but what do you think would be a good number?

Thank You very much.

[aelin]

Hi,

Sorry that this answer will be a bit vague, but as a good rule of thumb, use as many as you think is necessary. If you can keep on feeding it bugs (eg you have enough time and bugs to do so), and you do not suspect that there will be any problems, then keep on exploring! I would suggest using each type of bug in triplicate at minimum (this is generally the case for research), and because you suspect that the number will be low, you can definitely vary the types of land based bugs compared to flying ones. Moreover, if you come up with an interesting result, by all means follow up on it!

Hope this helps!
Aaron Lin

[lcandland]

Hi. Tell me about how your science fair project turned out. My son is facinated by orb weaver spiders and we have many in our backyard. He would like to do a science fair project with them. What was your hypothesis and how did it turn out? Any suggestions?