Study
Reconstructing web evolution and spider diversification in the molecular era
Blackledge, Todd A.; Scharff, Nikolaj; Coddington, Jonathan A.; Szüts, Tamás; Wenzel, John W.; Hayashi, Cheryl Y.; Agnarsson, Ingi
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009
A molecular phylogeny of spiders was constructed and web-building behaviour mapped onto it, testing whether the orb web arose once and whether web loss or elaboration accompanied diversification.
- Studied in
- Araneae
- Sample size
- molecular phylogeny across spider families with web architecture mapped
The orb web appears to have a single origin, and much of spider diversity consists of lineages that subsequently modified or abandoned it. Web-building is ancestral for a large part of the order, and many of the most diverse groups are hunters that gave webs up.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Web architecture is a phylogenetically informative trait, and the abandonment of orb webs accompanies major diversification events.
How NatureHQ reads it
The useful correction here is that spiders are not divided into web-builders and hunters as two equivalent strategies. Web-building is the older condition, and the hunting spiders that dominate a lot of spider diversity — including jumping spiders — descend from ancestors that built webs and stopped. Silk did not go away; it was redeployed for draglines, egg cases and ballooning.
- Phylogenetic reconstruction of behaviour is inference from living species, not observation.
- Web homology across distantly related groups is contested.
- Sampling of the enormous non-orb-weaving diversity is incomplete.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesPublished in PNAS.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901377106
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-10.