Prey availability limits fecundity and influences the movement pattern of female fishing spiders

Abstract

We conducted a food supplementation field experiment to test two hypotheses: (1) fecundity of the fishing spider Dolomedes triton is limited by a shortage of prey, and (2) the increased movement of adult female D. triton exhibited upon maturation is a foraging adaptation to lessen the impact of food limitation on egg production. Free ranging, uniquely marked adult female fishing spiders were assigned either to a food-supplemented group that received crickets in addition to their natural diet, or to a control group. Juvenile female spiders were also marked and their movement patterns were recorded, but juveniles were not offered supplemental food. Food-supplemented adult females gained weight at a faster rate and hatched more than twice as many offspring as control females. Adult females in the control group moved greater distances per day than did juvenile females. Supplemented adult females moved shorter distances per day than control females, and the movement pattern of fed adults did not differ from that of juveniles. These results support the hypotheses that adult female D. triton are food limited, and that the increased movement of adult females is a switch in foraging behavior that occurs during the reproductive period. Our finding that natural prey shortages limit egg production contrasts with laboratory-based studies of food limitation in the genus Dolomedes, and contradicts a basic assumption of a recent hypothesis that sexual cannibalism in Dolomedes is non-adaptive. These discrepancies highlight the importance of insights gained from field experiments with natural populations.