Potential prey of the cobweb weaver spider Tidarren sisyphoides (Araneae: Theridiidae)

Sarah E. Bell Western Kentucky University;
Albert J. Meier Western Kentucky University;
John Pickering Discover Life

Background/Methods/Question
Little is known about the feeding ecology of the spiders in the Tidarren genus. There are two species commonly found in the United States and both frequently build their tangled webs and nests around building foundations. Here we present a partial list of potential prey items photographed in webs of Tidarren sisyphoides near porch lights at a house in Clarke County, Georgia (33,8882N, 83.2973W). We examined over 2,200 photographs of the spiders, their webs, and potential prey items trapped in the webs that we monitored nightly between 2011 and 2018 as part of Discover Life's moth project. We tried to identify all potential prey and present a list of them, documenting the role T. sisyphoides plays in food web ecology. All images are on-line and can be viewed via Discover Life (www.discoverlife.org/moth). To date, we have tentatively identified 423 potential prey items.

Results/Conclusion
All of the potential prey items in the webs of the T. sisyphoides were arthropods. They included insects (401), other spiders (7), harvestmen (13), millipedes (1), and scorpions (1). The insects included Coleoptera (158), Lepidoptera (87), Hemiptera (81), Diptera (22, excluding small Dipterans), Hymenoptera (19), Orthoptera (14), Ephemeroptera (11), Neuroptera (8), and Plecoptera (1). Small Diptera were considered independently of large Diptera due to the innumerable conglomeration of midges and their parts around the nests of T. sisyphoides. One Lepidoptera prey of particular interest was Hypoprepia fucosa (Subfamily Arctiinae), the Painted Lichen Moth, which is an aposematic species. Our results indicate that T. sisyphoides is a generalist arthropod predator.

Submitted as a poster abstract to the Ecological Society of America, 21 February, 2019

Click on image for details.