Comparison Of Predatory Behavior Between Male And Female Dipoena Spiders

There is little scientific knowledge about the predatory behavioral differences between male and female Dipoena spiders. This research will increase the general spider predatory behavior knowledge for the greater scientific community by adding more information on non-dimorphic spiders. This research was conducted at Las Cruces Biological Station in Coto Brus County, Costa Rica. Based upon some preliminary observations and literature research, I hypothesized that male and female Dipoena spiders would have different hunting characteristics. 12 male and 32 female spiders were caught along the Rio Java, Wilson, and Melissa trails as well as within the botanical garden. Each spider had 3 behavioral observation tests. The first was to watch reactions when a Pheidole ant was introduced. The second was to observe behavior when another ant species (OAS) was introduced. The last test was to view behavior when 10 Pheidole were inserted into a Petri dish. I predicted female spiders would be more aggressive towards Pheidole in both the individual Pheidole ant and multiple Pheidole ant insertion observation, while males may be more aggressive towards other ant species. A chi-squared test was done on each of the three tests. For the single Pheidole observation, there was no significant difference between male and female behavior.  However, the Chi-squared test did indicate that females are significantly more likely to attack multiple individuals, as well as other species. Overall, these results indicate that male and female Dipoena do differ in predatory behavior under certain circumstances.