Putative microbial defenses in a social spider: immune variation and antibacterial properties of colony silk

摘要: Abstract The accumulation of microbes in and around the large, perennial nests social arthropods can increase potential for interactions between individuals harmful pathogens. Accordingly, many insects utilize multiple organizational lines individual collective defenses against microbes. interaction spiders, however, has been almost entirely unexplored. Here, we use spider Stegodyphus dumicola Pocock 1898 (Araneae: Eresidae) to (1) probe how innate immunity varies among (2) determine if two types silk extracted from their colonies inhibit growth entomopathogenic bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. Individual spiders’ lyophilized cells Micrococcus luteus varied negatively with boldness, a behavioral metric important foraging organization behaviors. Further, both capture webs retreats uncontaminated inhibited th...