Social-maternal relations in Coelotes terrestris (Araneae, Agelenidae): Influence of the female reproductive state on its tolerance towards conspecific spiderlings.

Recent studies have shown that maternal prey-supply activity in Coelestes terrestris depends on a specific internal state of the female linked with the emergence of its progeny. The present study clarifies the conditions which underlie female tolerance towards the young. Females at various stages of the reproductive cycle were each confronted with a group of ten 3-week-old spiders for 24 hours. Nursing and post-dispersal females perfectly tolerated the young presented to them while pre-laying and incubating females, on the contrary, were rather hostile and killed a number of the young presented to them. The difference in the attitude of the two categories of females shows that tolerance towards the young, like the prey-supply activity, depends on its reproductive state.