How temperature affects development and reproduction in spiders: A review

We review previously published studies on how temperature affects development and reproduction of spiders, with an emphasis on recent studies from China published in Chinese. We apply both linear and non-linear models to data from these papers to examine relationships between temperature and the spider's rate of development, and we estimate the thermal requirements of selected species. Intra-and interspecific variation in development time, survival, adult longevity, adult size, and reproduction are considered, and apparently, phenotypic plasticity in these above life history traits is induced by growth temperature. With respect to the life histories and life style of the spider species we argue that the thermal adaptations of spiders might have important roles in fine-tuning the species' life-history strategies: much of this variability is probably a consequence of adaptations to the different thermal conditions prevailing in the natural habitats of these species. Spiders living in warmer climates can withstand higher temperatures than species from colder climates, and species from colder climates can tolerate lower temperatures than species from warmer climates. Cold-habitat species develop more slowly at high temperatures, and warm-habitat species develop more slowly at low temperatures. Also, different species of spiders show different seasonal adaptations to the microenvironments in which they live: fast, low-temperature development is an indicator of adaptation to colder season(s) of the year, whereas slow, low-temperature development and fast, high-temperature development are indicators of adaptation to warm season(s) of the year. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd