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      A comparison of morphology and web geometry between hypogean and epigean species of Metellina orb spiders (family Tetragnathidae)

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      Subterranean Biology
      Pensoft Publishers

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          Abstract

          Studies on the behaviour of subterranean animals are rare, mainly due to the problems with collecting data in these inaccessible habitats. Web-building cave spiders, however, leave a semi-permanent record of their foraging behaviour, which can relatively easily be recorded. In this study, we compare size, leg lengths and web characteristics between hypogean populations of Metellina merianae with its close wood-inhabiting relative M. mengei. We confirm previous observations that M. merianae does not show any obvious morphological and behavioural adaptions to a subterranean life-style, although individuals of the cave species were significantly larger and had webs with relatively fewer radii and capture spiral turns than M. mengei. We were, however, not able to determine if these findings indicate a transition towards behavioural adaptation to caves or if they are a result of behavioural flexibility in response to the different humidity and temperature between caves and woodland. Finally, we did not find any effect of cave characteristics on either the number of radii or the area of the M. merianae web.

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            The cave environment.

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              Ecomorphological convergence of cave communities.

              Extreme selective environments are commonly believed to funnel evolution toward a few predictable outcomes. Caves are well-known extreme environments with characteristically adapted faunas that are similar in appearance, physiology, and behavior all over the world, even if not closely related. Morphological diversity between closely related cave species has been explained by difference in time since colonization and different ecological influence from the surface. Here, we tested a more classical hypothesis: morphological diversity is niche-based, and different morphologies reflect properties of microhabitats within caves. We analyzed seven communities with altogether 30 species of the subterranean amphipod (crustacean) genus Niphargus using multivariate morphometrics, multinomial logit models cross-validation, and phylogenetic reconstruction. Species clustered into four distinct ecomorph classes-small pore, cave stream, cave lake, and lake giants-associated with specific cave microhabitats and of multiple independent phylogenetic origins. Traits commonly regarded as adaptations to caves, such as antenna length, were shown to be related to microhabitat parameters, such as flow velocity. These results demonstrate that under the selection pressure of extreme environment, the ecomorphological structure of communities can converge. Thus, morphological diversity does not result from adaptive response to temporal and ecological gradients, but from fine-level niche partitioning. © 2012 The Author(s). Evolution© 2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Subterranean Biology
                SB
                Pensoft Publishers
                1314-2615
                1768-1448
                August 19 2019
                August 19 2019
                : 32
                : 1-13
                Article
                10.3897/subtbiol.32.36222
                283fb3db-0a88-458d-ac15-a875841b4111
                © 2019

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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