Data from: Floral spatial morphological characteristics preferences facilitate mating and predation in flower-visiting spiders
Data files
Oct 17, 2025 version files 7.84 KB
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Li_et_al_2025.zip
4.21 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
Numerous flower visitors exhibit varying preferences for floral characteristics. As one group of flower visitors, the preferences of spiders for flower colour have garnered attention; however, their preferences for the spatial morphological characteristics of flowers remain largely unexplored. This study investigated the preferences of flower-visiting crab spiders Ebrechtella tricuspidata for flower size, petal density, and symmetry, and explored the underlying reasons from the courtship and predation. The results indicated that male spiders preferred larger flowers, while females favored densely petaled flowers and symmetrical flowers. Additionally, males exhibited a stronger preference for females that sitting on larger flowers than on smaller ones. Furthermore, consistent with spider preferences, the potential prey houseflies and honeybees, also showed a significant preference for larger, densely petaled, and symmetrical flowers in visitation experiments. We propose that prey preferences for floral characteristics may be a primary factor influencing spider preferences. We hypothesize that the flower characteristics influence insect visitation preferences, which may extend to third trophic level predators, thereby determining the preferences of flower-visiting spiders. Overall, our research provided new insights and evidence regarding spider preferences for floral characteristics, emphasizing that these preferences may facilitate both predation and mating in spiders.
This README_data was generated on 2024-03-07.
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This folder contains 3 files.
1. 1_spiders_choose_flowers.csv:
the results of experiment 1-6, female and male spiders choose flowers with different spatial morphological characteristics.
Number of variables: 5
Number of rows: 299
Variable list
- no.: the number of trials.
- treatment: the pair of flowers presented to the spiders.
- spider: the male and female spiders that choose between flowers.
- results: the choice made by spiders between flowers with varying spatial and morphological characteristics. In the "large flower-small flower" treatment, a refers to the female spider selecting the large flower, b to the small flower, c to the male spider selecting the large flower, and d to the small flower. In the "densely petaled flower-sparsely petaled flower" treatment, e refers to the female spider selecting the densely petaled flower, f to the sparsely petaled flower, g to the male spider selecting the densely petaled flower, and h to the sparsely petaled flower. In the "symmetrical flower-asymmetrical flower" treatment, i refers to the female spider selecting the symmetrical flower, j to the asymmetrical flower, k to the male spider selecting the symmetrical flower, and l to the asymmetrical flower.
- choosing.time: the duration from the start of the trial until the spider first contacts a flower, measured in seconds.
Note: The NA values in the file 1_spiders_choose_flowers.csv indicate that the spiders failed to select in the trials, therefore the values are not available.
2. 2_male_spiders_choose_females.csv:
the result of experiment 7-9, male spiders choose females that on flowers with different spatial morphological characteristics.
Number of variables: 4
Number of rows: 62
Variable list
- no.: the number of trials.
- treatment: two females sitting on a pair of flowers with different spatial morphological characteristics, from which the male chooses.
- results: the result of male choice in each treatment. a and b refer to the male spider choosing the female on the large and small flowers, respectively. c and d refer to the male spider choosing the female on the densely petaled and sparsely petaled flowers, respectively. e and f refer to the male spider choosing the female on the symmetrical and asymmetrical flowers, respectively..
- choosing.time: the duration from the start of the trial until the spider first contacts a flower, measured in seconds.
3. 3_insects_visit_flowers.csv:
the result of experiment 10-15, the visit rate of insects for flowers with different spatial morphological characteristics.
Number of variables: 7
Number of rows: 175
Variable list
- no.: number of trials.
- insects: housefly and bee
- treatment: the pair of flowers presented to the insects.
- flowers: in houseflies, a and b represent the visit rates for the large and small flowers, respectively. c and d represent the visit rates for the densely petaled and sparsely petaled flowers, respectively. e and f represent the visit rates for the symmetrical and asymmetrical flowers. In bees, g and h represent the visit rates for the large and small flowers, respectively. i and j represent the visit rates for the densely petaled and sparsely petaled flowers, respectively. k and l represent the visit rates for the symmetrical and asymmetrical flowers.
- visitation.percentage.10: the visit rate for flowers in 10 minute
- visitation.percentage.20: the visit rate for flowers in 20 minute
- visitation.percentage.30: the visit rate for flowers in 30 minute
We used E. tricuspidata spiders and odorless artificial L. maximum flowers to conduct all experiments. First, the preferences of E. tricuspidata for floral spatial morphological characteristics were assessed by offering spiders (a) large versus small flowers, (b) densely versus sparsely petaled flowers, and (c) symmetrical versus asymmetrical flowers. Second, the mating preferences of E. tricuspidata were examined by presenting males with females sitting on flowers with different characteristics. Third, we tested the visitation preferences of the potential prey of the spider for flowers with different characteristics.