{"id":443,"date":"2021-10-14T10:43:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T17:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/avileslab\/?page_id=443"},"modified":"2022-01-18T20:11:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T03:11:59","slug":"presentations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/avileslab\/presentations\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ecology of spider sociality \u2013 A Spatial Model<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Leticia Avil\u00e9s, American Arachnological Society, 2021<\/span><\/h4>\n

The emergence of animal societies offers unsolved problems for both evolutionary and ecological studies. Systems with a strong signal in their geographic distribution can shed light on the factors that favour or hinder group living. Based on 30+ years of research on the spider genus Anelosimus, we developed a spatially-explicit simulation model to test the hypothesis that gradients of increasing insect size and disturbance (strong rain, predators) with proximity to the lowland tropical rainforest are necessary and sufficient to explain why social species are concentrated in lowland tropical areas, whereas subsocial species, absent from these areas, are present at higher elevations and latitudes. The model recreated the observed patterns when both insect size and disturbance gradients were present. With small prey everywhere, on the other hand, social species disappeared from the grid, whereas when high disturbance was applied everywhere, higher elevations became empty as large colonies could not form in the absence of large prey, but small colonies were wiped out due to disturbance. The model thus supports the need for large insects for large social colonies to form and the importance of disturbance in creating conditions that require group living while tempering the dynamics of large social groups.<\/p>\n