Off-campus ETSU users: To download "Campus Only" theses, please use the following link to log in to our proxy server with your ETSU username and password.
Non-ETSU users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.
Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Program
Biology
Date of Award
5-2011
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Thomas C. Jones
Committee Members
Ke Chen, Thomas F. Laughlin
Abstract
Microclimates associated with environmental and geographic factors directly affect the ability of an organism to survive in a particular area. Survival is affected by: predator/prey abundance, temperature, relative humidity. A group of organisms that are particularly prone to habitat sensitivity are web-building spiders, because building the web commits them to a particular site for a period of time. Anelosimus studiosus is a small (~8 mm) Theridiid spider that exhibits varying degrees of sociality: a subsocial phenotype and a social phenotype. Population densities of A. studiosus vary significantly among seemingly suitable habitats within its range in east Tennessee. I conducted a large-scale survey of east Tennessee lake systems to establish connections between spider presence and geographic features such as aspect, slope and elevation. These geographic features were shown to have a strong impact on overall spider density.
Document Type
Thesis - restricted
Recommended Citation
Linville, Brent, "A Biogeographic Analysis of the Socially Polyphenic Spider Anelosimus studiosus in East Tennessee." (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1253. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1253
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.