Coexistence of four orb-web spiders in an oil palm plantation in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Thirty adult female individuals of each of the four orb-web spider species namelyAraneussp. (Araneidae), Gasteracantha kuhliKoch, 1837 (Araneidae), Gasteracantha hasselti Koch, 1837 (Araneidae) and Opadometa grata(Simon, 1877) (Tetragnathidae) were randomly sampled between 1000 and 1400 h from May to July 2017 in an oil palm plantation in Perak, Malaysia. Morphological and web characters of these orb-web spiders were obtained and analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and bootstrapping methods. For the morphological characters, the PCA results captured a total of 99% of the variance and indicate that the Araneid species have distinct clustering. For the web characters, the PCA captured 76% of the total variance and did not show any distinct clustering with significant overlapping between them. Moreover, the mean and 95% confidence intervals using bootstrapping identified significant differences in the morphological and web characters for most spider species with little overlap. This study indicates that the four orb-web spider species could coexist in terms of their spatial territory and food resources in the oil palm plantation, suggesting that these resources were not a limiting factor.

Keywords

• Agriculture,co-occurrence,homogeneous habitat,niche overlap

Batı Malezya'da yağlık palmiye plantasyonunda küresel ağlı dört örümcek türünün bir arada bulunması

Öz

Araneussp. (Araneidae), Gasteracantha kuhliKoch, 1837 (Araneidae), Gasteracanthahasselti Koch, 1837 (Araneidae) ve Opadometa grata(Simon, 1877) (Tetragnathidae), isimli küresel ağlı dört örümcek türünden her birinden otuz yetişkin dişi birey, Perak, Malezya'daki bir yağlık palmiye plantasyonunda Mayıs-Temmuz 2017 tarihleri arasında 1000 ila 1400 saat arasında gündüz rastgele olarak örneklenmiştir. Bu küresel ağlı örümcek türlerinin, morfolojik ve ağ karakterleri, temel bileşen analizi ve önyükleme yöntemleri kullanılarak elde edilmiş ve analiz edilmiştir. Morfolojik karakterler için, temel bileşen analiz sonuçları, varyansın toplam %99'unu yakalamış ve Araneid türlerinin ayrı bir grup oluşturduğunu göstermiştir. Ağ karakterleri için, temel bileşen analizi toplam varyansın %76'sını yakalamış ve aralarında belirgin bir örtüşmeyle ayrı bir grup özelliği göstermemiştir. Öte yandan, önyüklemeyi kullanan ve ortalama %95 güven aralığında, örümcek türlerinin çoğunda küçük çakışmalar için morfolojik ve ağ karakterlerinde önemli farklılıklar tespit etmiştir. Bu çalışma, küresel ağlı dört örümcek türünün, yağlık palmiye plantasyonundaki alansal topraklar ve besin kaynakları açısından bir arada bulunabileceğini ve bu kaynakların sınırlayıcı bir faktör olmadığını göstermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Tarım,birlikte bulunma,homojen habitat,niş örtüşmesi

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