Spiders Are Better Off Alone

You would think that spiders migrate into different environments in groups to enhance their chances of survival. This has been the traditional line of thinking among the experts. However, a recent study has demonstrated that spiders are more likely to survive if they travel to new environments alone, and not accompanied by a group.

An entomologist from the University of California at Riverside, and the head of the study, Jessica Purcell, believes that the study showed that colonies are more accepting of one spider as opposed to a group of spiders. If a group of spiders leave their own colony bound for a new one the members of the new colony will likely work together to kill off the entire group of alien spiders, but this does not occur if only one spider enters the new alien colony. This is likely due to the fact that interbreeding with a large group of spiders from a different species will result in offspring that lack their parents adaptive traits, and therefore the offspring would be unable to survive.

A new group of spiders would likely be unaccepted by a different colony because an entire group of spiders would throw off the balance between docile and aggressive spiders in the colony. If a colony of spiders fails to successfully equalize the amount of aggressive versus docile spiders then mass cannibalism could occur as a result of more aggressive spiders than desired.

Why would a spider take the risk of leaving its home colony for another colony comprised of a different species of spider?