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Life Beneath Silk Walls: A Review of the Primitively Social Embiidina

Abstract

I review and summarize the scattered information on embiids (Order Embiidina), with an emphasis on details of colony structure and maternal care. I summarize experimental and observational field results from a detailed study on parental and communal behavior of Antipaluria urichi, a Trinidadian webspinner. Topics discussed include the function of maternal behavior, interactions with egg parasitoids, antipredator attributes of communal living, and possible functions of silk. I also compare features of webspinner sociality to other communal insects and spiders. In addition, I discuss promising topics for future study, including male dimorphism, the possibility of higher sociality, and communication systems

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