Investigating the Web Structure of the Orb-Weaving Spider, Araneus diadematus

Abstract

The goal of this project was to gather data on Araneus diadematus spider webs to help improve web building computer simulations for our associated project, “Can Computers Weave a More Perfect Web?”. Araneus webs of different sizes were located around the UWEC campus, lightly sprayed with paint, and then collected by gently pressing them against pieces of cardboard sprayed with glue. The mounted webs were scanned, converted to pdf files, printed off, and then measured. Data were collected on web frame size, spacing between web stands, the number of prey caught and several other metrics. Our results confirmed that larger webs caught more prey, but the overall differences in structural design did not appear to change as webs size increased. Only the number of web “wedges” did not show a relationship to the number of prey captured.