TUESDAY 20 AUGUST 2019Aggressive spider colonies
boom after tropical storms
Angry communal spiders benefitted from hurricanes (Thomas Jones)
PHOEBE WESTON
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
Aggressive spider colonies are more likely to survive and reproduce after hurricanes than more docile ones,
according to new research. Scientists studied colonies of Anelosimus studiosus, known as the communal
spider or tangle web spider, which live throughout North and South America.
They found the temperament of a colony can be the difference between life and death: aggressive colonies
had a higher rate of reproduction following a tropical storm, whereas in regions with no storms, more
docile colonies did better, according to researchers from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.