| List of contributors | p. viii |
| How this book came about | p. xi |
| spider biology | p. 1 |
| Scope of this book | p. 1 |
| Spider biology | p. 2 |
| The evolutionary history of spiders | p. 17 |
| Conclusion | p. 21 |
| Flexibility in the foraging strategies of spiders | p. 31 |
| Introduction | p. 31 |
| Investments required by extra-oral digestion | p. 33 |
| Silk use, behavioural categories and predatory versatility | p. 35 |
| Flexibility based on chemoreception | p. 36 |
| Flexibility based on vision | p. 38 |
| Searching for sensory-modality trade-offs | p. 40 |
| From aggressive mimicry to mind games | p. 41 |
| Araneophagic salticids | p. 44 |
| Ambushing spiders on tree trunks | p. 46 |
| Plants as spider food | p. 47 |
| Conclusions and outlook | p. 48 |
| Spider webs: evolution, diversity and plasticity | p. 57 |
| Webs, silks and decorations | p. 57 |
| Genetic basis for variation | p. 70 |
| Plasticity in web building | p. 75 |
| Conclusions and outlook | p. 85 |
| Flexible use of anti-predator defences | p. 99 |
| Introduction | p. 99 |
| The predators of spiders | p. 100 |
| Camouflage | p. 101 |
| Masquerade | p. 102 |
| Limb loss as flexible secondary defence | p. 104 |
| Aposematism and Batesian mimicry | p. 105 |
| Practising safe sex in the presence of predators | p. 108 |
| Flexible defence in webs | p. 110 |
| Predator-specific refinement of prey sensory ability | p. 111 |
| Ecotypic variation in predator-identification ability | p. 114 |
| Blurring the distinction between foraging and anti-predator defence | p. 116 |
| Conclusions and outlook | p. 117 |
| Communication | p. 127 |
| Introduction | p. 127 |
| Semiochemicals | p. 129 |
| Acoustic signals | p. 143 |
| Visual signals | p. 156 |
| Multimodal signals | p. 162 |
| Social interactions | p. 164 |
| Conclusion and outlook | p. 165 |
| Deceptive signals in spiders | p. 190 |
| The evolution of deceptive signals | p. 190 |
| Deception via colour | p. 191 |
| Deception via scent | p. 199 |
| Deception via vibrations | p. 202 |
| Conclusions and outlook | p. 207 |
| Mating behaviour and sexual selection | p. 215 |
| Introduction | p. 215 |
| Mate attraction and approach | p. 216 |
| Mating | p. 233 |
| Consequences of polyandry | p. 241 |
| Conclusions and outlook | p. 255 |
| Group Iiving in spiders: cooperative Dreeding and coloniality | p. 275 |
| Introducing group-living spiders | p. 276 |
| Subsocial spiders, and the subsocial route to cooperative sociality | p. 278 |
| Cooperative social spiders | p. 279 |
| Conclusions and outlook - social spiders | p. 288 |
| Colonial spiders | p. 290 |
| Conclusions and outlook - colonial spiders | p. 298 |
| Plasticity, learning and cognition | p. 307 |
| Overview | p. 307 |
| Predation | p. 308 |
| Interactions with other animals | p. 319 |
| Spatial learning and navigation | p. 323 |
| Heat aversion | p. 329 |
| Environmental enrichment | p. 330 |
| The Deurobiological basis of learning | p. 330 |
| Conclusions and outlook | p. 333 |
| Kleptoparasitic spiders of the subfamily Argyrodinae: a special case of behavioural plasticity | p. 348 |
| Introduction | p. 348 |
| Phytogeny and the flexibility of Argyrodinae foraging behaviours | p. 350 |
| Argyrodinae and webs | p. 361 |
| Flexibility of kleptoparasitic behaviours | p. 363 |
| Flexibility of araneophagic behaviours | p. 369 |
| Sociality and foraging behaviours | p. 371 |
| Competition for mates and mating behaviour | p. 374 |
| Conclusions and outlook | p. 379 |
| Index | p. 387 |
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