Abstract

Spiders, those crafty arthropods, are famed for their widespread web-building skills. Found everywhere from homes to fields, they use their spinnerets and legs to weave intricate webs. With their ability to survive leg loss and even perform autotomy to escape predators, spiders adapt swiftly despite the costs of their web-building behavior. This study aimed to assess the effect of autotomy on web-building behavior so that we can measure altered web parameters to determine how autotomy affects spiders in the wild. To investigate the impact of leg loss on spider behavior, three groups were formed: control, forelegs removed, and hind legs removed. Spiders from the city Farooka, district Sargodha were housed in custom wooden boxes, with control spiders having intact legs, forelegs removed spiders missing the first two pairs, and hind legs removed spiders missing the last two pairs. Daily observations, feeding, and web parameter measurements were conducted to assess how leg loss affected prey capture behavior. Results showed that the removal of forelegs had no significant impact on the web parameters of the orb-web spider whilst hind legs removal caused a considerable change in the web parameters altering the number of spirals, number of radii, and anchoring thread length. The results of this study have provided data to conduct in-depth future research to find study detailed impacts of loss of legs on the web architecture of spiders.