New reports of confirmed pandiculation by spiders

Abstract

Pandiculation within spiders has only recently been discovered - the first record of this habit among Protostomia – and it has only been demonstrated in one species (Cyclosa argenteoalba). We report here four further araneoid species i.e. Argiope bruennichi, Cyrtophora ikomosanensis, Trichonephila clavata (all Araneidae), and Nihonhimea japonica (Theridiidae) exhibiting pandiculation in or on their own webs. These records suggest that pandiculation is widely distributed at least among the superfamily Araneoidea, members of which generally construct aerial webs and wait in ambush for a long period.