| dc.description.abstract | The rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide release of primitive
hunters and weaver spiders, the Chilean Recluse spider Loxosceles laeta Nicolet
(Araneae: Sicariidae) and the Chilean Tiger spider Scytodes globula Nicolet (Araneae:
Scytodidae), are analyzed, and their relationship with body mass is studied. The results
are compared with the metabolic data available for other spiders. A low metabolic rate is
found both for these two species and other primitive hunters and weavers, such as spiders
of the families Dysderidae and Plectreuridae. The metabolic rate of this group is lower
than in nonprimitive spiders, such as the orb weavers (Araneae: Araneidae). The results
reject the proposition of a general relationship for metabolic rate for all land arthropods
(related to body mass) and agree with the hypothesis that metabolic rates are affected not
only by sex, reproductive and developmental status, but also by ecology and life style,
recognizing here, at least in the araneomorph spiders, a group having low metabolism,
comprising the primitive hunters and weaver spiders, and another group comprising the
higher metabolic rate web building spiders (e.g. orb weavers). | |
