BODY, WEB-BUILDING AND FEEDING 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MALES OF 
THE SPIDER ARANEUS DIADEM ATUS 
(ARANEAE: ARANEIDAE) 
By Raymond Ramousse* 
Division of Research 
North Carolina Department of Mental Health 
P. O. Box 7532 
Raleigh, North Carolina 27611 
INTRODUCTION 
Many investigators have observed female orb-web spiders in their 
natural habitats (Enders, 1972; Eberhard, 1971), but there have 
been relatively few scientific observations of males outdoors. A major 
reason for this is because after maturation males discontinue web- 
building and they seek mates and are difficult to follow in an un- 
confined setting. Males have also attracted less attention in labora- 
tory situations since they have shorter life spans than females and 
because they stop building webs after reaching maturity. The activity 
of spiders in laboratories has been observed primarily in relation to 
their web-building behavior (LeGuelte, 1966, Witt, 1963a, b), 
making the female a more frequent subject of study. Thus, with 
the exception of maturation on web-building (Witt et al. f 1972), 
only females have been comprehensively studied. 
The focus of this research is to explore the activities of the males 
of Araneus diadematus ’Clerck and their role in the female-male 
relationship which ultimately determines the continuity of the species. 
Two characteristics related to the females have already been identi- 
fied as possibly playing a part in the survival of the species. These 
include cocoon hatching and differential maturing. Cocoons have 
been observed hatching at two different times for a single species of 
spider — presumably providing an advantageous distribution of egg- 
production over a period of time (Potzsch, 1963). Also, within a 
set 1 of spiderlings, different rates of maturation have been observed. 
Some females grow rapidly and die early while others grow slowly 
^Present address of author: Laboratoire d’Ethologie experimentale, 1 rue 
Raulin, 69 Lyon 7 e , France 
Manuscript received by the editor March 26, 1973 
To avoid confusion with the designation of “family” used in nomencla- 
ture, offsprings from a single cocoo-n will be called a “set.” 
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