Rg. Gillespie et Be. Tabashnik, FORAGING BEHAVIOR OF THE HAWAIIAN HAPPY FACE SPIDER (ARANEAE, THERIDIIDAE), Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 87(6), 1994, pp. 815-822
The Hawaiian happy face spider, Theridion grallator Simon, builds a fl
imsy web on the undersides of leaves. We compared the foraging behavio
r of T. grallator on three plant species (Broussaisia arguta, Clermont
ia arborescens, and Hedychium sp.) that differed in number of associat
ed arthropods, leaf area, and web area of the associated spiders. Spec
ifically, we tested whether spiders exhibited specialization on partic
ular prey, greater site tenacity on webs of larger area, greater site
tenacity in microhabitats of locally abundant and predictable prey, an
d foraging activity beyond the confines of the web. We found no eviden
ce of prey specialization or association of web-site tenacity with web
area or locally abundant prey. Unexpectedly, web-site tenacity was re
lated negatively to prey capture. The results supported the hypothesis
that T. grallator freely forages away from the immediate web, and ind
ividual spiders frequently move to a new leaf to capture insects. We s
uggest that T. grallator may be capable of locating and capturing prey
on a leaf other than its leaf of residence.