The Behavioural Strategy of Orb Weaving Spider Zygiella Indica Tikader & Bal, 1980 (Araneae: Araneidae)

Web building spiders are excellent models for the behavioral study in an ecosystem. Webs of spiders are the proverbial symbols of this group of animals, however the variation of webs is enormous. The aim of the present study was focus on orb web biology of a poorly known araneoid spider Zygiella indica Tikader & Bal, 1980 (Araneae Araneidae). The study was carried out during 2013 and 2014 in the coffee plantation at Chikhaldara in the state of Maharashtra, India. We calculated mesh width, web area, web asymmetry and web height as well as radial and spiral counts. In our study, Zygiella indica settle on hub, repaired and constructed hub in 28.91 1.26 sec. and construction of web was completed in 41.58 0.41 min. We recorded the height of constructed webs at that ranged from 130 cm to 142 cm from ground. We collected 56 preys of insect orders from 24 webs in study time. Prey recorded from webs on order Diptera greater than Homoptera greater than Coleoptera greater than Hymenoptera. We estimated the average mesh width was 2.34 0.03 mm. Average web asymmetry of measured 24 web was recorded as 0.34 0.009 in the present investigation. In our study we calculated the average area of the web was as 339.43 9.3 cm2. We conclude that Zygiella indica always maintain the basic web architecture during prey capture and it reflects many selection pressure in the environment.