Spiders loving big city living

22 August 2014 - 16:13 By Times LIVE
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Image: Karora/ Wikipedia

Researchers have found that spiders grow bigger, fatter and more fertile in the city.

According to a study, published in PloS One, golden orb spiders (Nephila plumipes) are thriving in the face of urbanisation.

"Spider size increased with hard surface cover at a local and microhabitat scale and decreased in areas with more vegetation cover. Spider ovaries were significantly larger in sites in close to the city, and in areas with more hard surfaces and less leaf litter," the researchers wrote.

The researchers figure there may be three reasons for this - first city living is generally warmer, there is more prey for the spiders to eat and they are getting more light.

"N.plumipes may benefit from the heat island effect attributed to urbanisation. The urban heat island effect is primarily a result of hard surfaces and lack of vegetation cover and studies consistently show significantly higher temperatures associated with anthropogenic land cover," the researchers said.

Further, the edges of urban areas tend to include both open and forested areas, which increases the number of bugs for the spiders to eat.

"Another explanation for the correlation between larger spiders and elongated sites is increased exposure to surrounding urban light, as large spiders were also associated with anthropogenic structures such as light posts and were larger in sites closer to the CBD," the researchers said.

All of this to say that these city spiders are enjoying the warmth, the food and the bright lights.

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