Argyrodinae Spiders as a Parasite and Host

Many species of Argyrodinae spiders are kleptoparasites, living on the webs of other spiders and often stealing food, destroying host silk as well as consuming the eggs, young and even adult hosts. Do these kleptoparasites cost the host nutritionally or do they largely consume small prey left unnoticed? Do they destroy eggs and young to such a degree that the host's reproductive output is impacted? Do they kill healthy hosts to such a degree as to impact the population?

Spiders commonly carry infections of symbiotic bacteria, residing within the cells, haemolymph and tissues. These bacteria are found widely among arthropods and much of the previous work has focused on their impact regarding their host's reproduction, to increase their own propagation. However, they can also manipulate other aspects of their host's phenotype including dispersal, heat tolerance and parasite resistance. In the preliminary stages of this project, strains of these symbionts have been isolated from the tissues of Argyrodinae spiders but the extent of infection as well as their impact has not been investigated. Do they manipulate the reproduction of these spider hosts? Do they confer fitness benefits to the hosts? How have these bacteria adapted to their specialised living and by what processes are they able to impact the phenotype of their hosts?

These questions regarding the ecology, physiology and evolution of the spiders, their hosts and their bacteria have wide-scale impacts due to their interactions with agriculture. The hosts of specific Argyrodinae are pests in some systems due to their webs removing light access to plants but largely spiders provide many benefits to agriculture through their consumption of pest species. The impact of endosymbiontic bacteria in providing resistance to pesticides will be explored but also the ways that endosymbiontic infections impact their community structures and distribution, especially within crop fields.