Setting the stage

G. Evelyn Hutchinson (1965) succinctly described the world view of most ecologists when he titled a collection of essays ‘The Ecological Theater and the Evolutionary Play.’ Ecologists routinely postulate roles for their favorite organisms in the ecological drama. Because their scripts are at best dimly perceived, much research is designed to uncover the role of a species, or group of species, in a particular habitat, community or ecosystem.

What role does the spider play on its stage? What is its part in the network of interactions comprising the ecological web in which it lives? Certain basic roles the spider assumes frequently, so that in the repertoire of ecological plays the spider can be typecast to play one of a few fundamental characters. We also assume that spiders adhere, though with some improvisation, to a few simple scripts. Without these assumptions successful generalizing would be close to impossible. Our goal is to uncover the hidden scripts in order to understand the interactive dynamics with other players in the drama. But first we must complete a brief sketch of our leading actor.

The spider persona: a series of character sketches

A general portrait

Spiders are ubiquitous predators in terrestrial ecosystems. Spiders are generalist feeders that primarily attack insects, but also eat other arthropods, including spiders. They are even more strictly carnivorous than many other taxa of primarily predacious invertebrates such as centipedes and carabid beetles.