This review first briefly treats the different types of spider cannibalism and then focuses in more depth on evidence relating cannibalism to population dynamics and food web interactions to address the following questions.
The spider in the ecological play is a central character in the story of how spiders avoid competition and the impact of spiders on insect populations and competitionist views of spider communities are examined.
Testing the hypothesis that a detrital subsidy would enhance trophic cascades in the grazing food web of an agroecosystem in which generalist predators, wolf spiders and carabid beetles, feed both on detritivores and herbivores found no consistent evidence of strong trophal cascades measured as changes in fruit yield in either detritus-addition or predator-removal treatments.
The results of these experiments suggest that prey species that are similar in morphology and behavior, and that are initially killed and consumed, may differ dramatically in their suitability as food for generalist arthropod predators.
Consumption by Schizocosa of even small amounts of some “toxic” prey species reduced growth by inhibiting feeding rate and impairing utilization of food derived from prey of higher quality, having implications for understanding the interactions of generalist predators in community food webs.
The results of field and laboratory experiments lead to the conclusion that cannibalism can act as a strong DD mortality factor for young instars of S. ocreata, with the potential to regulate densities of this abundant cursorial spider.
Substantial bottom-up lim- itation is uncovered in this detritus-based food web, expressed as responses by predaceous arthropods at least two trophic links removed from the experimentally elevated resource.