Summary
We evaluated the role of adult foraging success in the lifetime fitness of female crab spidersMisumena vatia. Misumena are semelparous, sit and wait predators that hunt for insect prey on flowers, in this study primarily on inflorescences (umbels) of milkweedAsclepias syriaca. We used path analysis to integrate previously performed experimental and observational studies, thereby establishing the magnitude, correlations and causal relationships of key foraging and life history variables and their roles in lifetime fitness. A path proceeding from maternal hunting patch choice through maternal mass, clutch mass and number of dispersal-age young was the dominant element and explained a large part of the variation. Other paths that incorporated parasitism of the egg mass and predation of young leaving the nests made only small impacts on variation. No trade-offs were found, primarily because a single factor, maternal mass (a maternal effect) resulting from foraging success, provided major benefits for successive life history stages. Since differences in the numbers of eggs, egg loss and mortality at dispersal resulted almost entirely from differences in maternal mass, they are controlled by the maternal generation and, thus, are appropriately attributed to the lifetime fitnesses of the mothers, rather than to those of their offspring.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Aitchison, C.W. (1984) The phenology of winter-active species.J. Arachnol. 12 249–71.
Arnold, S.J. (1983) Morphology, performance and fitness.Am. Zool. 23 347–61.
Arnold, S.J. (1992) Constraints on phenotypic evolution.Am. Nat. 140 (Suppl.), S85-S107.
Arnold, S.J. and Wade, M.J. (1984) On the measurement of natural and sexual selection, applications.Evolution 38 720–34.
Bell, G. (1984a) Measuring the cost of reproduction. I. The correlation structure of the life table of a plankton rotifer.Evolution 38 300–13.
Bell, G. (1984b) Measuring the cost of reproduction. II. The correlation structure of the life tables of five freshwater invertebrates.Evolution 38 314–26.
Boggs, C.L. (1992) Resource allocation, exploring connections between foraging and life history.Funct. Ecol. 6 508–18.
Cole, L.C. (1954) The population consequences of life history phenomena.Q. Rev. Biol. 29, 103–37
Endler, J.A. (1986) Natural selection in the wild.Monogr. Pop. Biol. 21 1–336.
Falconer, D.S. (1989)Introduction to Quantitative Genetics, 3rd edn. Longman, London.
Fink, L.S. (1986) Costs and benefits of maternal behaviour in the green lynx spider (Oxyopidae,Peucetia viridans).Animal Behav. 34 1051–60.
Foelix, R. (1982)Biology of Spiders. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Fritz, R.S. and Morse, D.H. (1985) Reproductive success, growth rate and foraging decisions of the crab spiderMisumena vatia.Oecologia 65 194–200.
Gertsch, W.J. (1939) A revision of the typical crab-spiders (Misumeninae) of America north of Mexico.Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 76 277–442.
Grafen, A. (1988) On the uses of data on lifetime reproductive success. InReproductive Success (T.H. Clutton-Brock, ed.), pp. 454–71. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Houle, D. (1991) Genetic covariance of fitness correlates: what genetic correlations are made of and why it matters.Evolution 45 630–48.
Kamil, A.C., Krebs, J.R. and Pulliam, H.R. (1987) The reproductive consequences of foraging. InForaging Behavior (A.C. Kamil, J.R. Krebs and H.R. Pulliam, eds), p. 415. Plenum, New York.
Kingsolver, J.G. and Schemske, D.W. (1991) Path analyses of selection.Trends Ecol. Evol. 6 276–80.
Kirkpatrick, M. and Lande, R. (1989) The evolution of maternal characters.Evolution 43 485–503.
Li, C.-C. (1975)Path Analysis, A Primer. Boxwood Press, Pacific Grove, CA.
Morse, D.H. (1979) Prey capture by the crab spiderMisumena calycina (Araneae, Thomisidae).Oecologia 39 309–19.
Morse, D.H. (1981a) Prey capture by the crab spiderMisumena vatia (L.) (Thomisidae) on three common native flowers.Am. Midl. Nat. 105 358–67.
Morse, D.H. (1981b) Modification of bumble bee foraging, the effect of milkweed pollinia.Ecology 62 89–97.
Morse, D.H. (1985) Nests and nest-site selection of the crab spiderMisumena vatia (Araneae, Thomisidae) on milkweed.J. Arachnol. 13 383–90.
Morse, D.H. (1986) Foraging behavior of crab spiders (Misumena vatia) hunting on inflorescences of different quality.Am. Midl. Nat. 116 341–7.
Morse, D.H. (1987) Attendance patterns, prey capture, changes in mass, and survival of crab spidersMisumena vatia (Araneae, Thomisidae) guarding their nests.J. Arachnol. 15 193–204.
Morse, D.H. (1988a) Relationship between crab spiderMisumena vatia nesting success and earlier patchchoice decisions.Ecology 69 1970–3.
Morse, D.H. (1988b) Cues associated with patch-choice decisions by foraging crab spidersMisumena vatia.Behavior 107 297–313.
Morse, D.H. (1990) Leaf choices of nest-building crab spiders (Misumena vatia).Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 27 265–7.
Morse, D.H. (1992) Predation on dispersing spiderlingsMisumena vatia and its relationship to their mothers' earlier patch-choice decisions.Ecology 73 1814–19.
Morse, D.H. (1993a) Dispersal of spiderlings from their nests and its relationship to their mothers' earlier foraging decisions.Ecology 74 427–32.
Morse, D.H. (1993b) Placement of crab spider (Misumena vatia) nests in relation to their spiderlings' hunting sites.Am. Midl. Nat. 129 241–7.
Morse, D.H. (1993c) Choosing hunting sites with little information, patch-choice responses of crab spiders to distant cues.Behav. Ecol. 4 61–5.
Morse, D.H. (1994) Numbers of broods produced by the crab spiderMisumena vatia (Araneae, Thomisidae).J. Arachnol. 22 195–9.
Morse, D.H. and Fritz, R.S. (1982) Experimental and observational studies of patch-choice at different scales by the crab spiderMisumena vatia.Ecology 63 172–82.
Mousseau, T.A. and Roff, D.A. (1987) Natural selection and the heritability of fitness components.Heredity 59 181–97.
Pedhazur, E.J. (1982)Multiple Regression in Behavioral Research. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.
Roff, D.A. (1992)The Evolution of Life Histories. Chapman & Hall, New York.
SAS Institute Inc. (1985)User's Guide. Statistics. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC.
Schaefer, M. (1976) Experimentelle Untersuchungen zum Jahreszyklus und zur Uberwinterung von Spinnen (Araneida).Zool Jb. Syst. 103, 127–289.
Scheiner, S.M., Caplan, R.L. and Lyman, R.F. (1989) A search for trade-offs among life history traits inDrosophila melanogaster.Evol. Ecol. 3 51–63.
Sibly, R. and Antonovics, J. (1992) Life-history evolution.Symp. Br. Ecol. Soc. 33 81–122.
Sokal, R.R. and Rohlf, F.J. (1981)Biometry, 2nd edn. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, CA.
Stearns, S.C. (1976) Life history tactics. A review of the ideas.Q. Rev. Biol. 51 3–47.
Stearns, S.C. (1992)The Evolution of Life Histories. Oxford University Press, New York.
Travis, J. (1988) Differential fertility as a major mode of selection.Trends Ecol. Evol. 3 227–30.
van Noordwijk, A.J. and de Jong, G. (1986) Acquisition and allocation of resources, their influence on variation in life history tactics.Am. Nat. 128 137–42.
Wade, M.J. and Kalisz, S. (1990) The causes of natural selection.Evolution 44 1947–55.
Wright, S. (1968)Evolution and the Genetics of Populations, Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Morse, D.H., Stephens, E.G. The consequences of adult foraging success on the components of lifetime fitness in a semelparous, sit and wait predator. Evol Ecol 10, 361–373 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237723
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01237723