The Influence of Habitat Structure on the Distribution of Araneus diadematus Clerck

Andrewartha & Birch (1954) have summarized a great deal of information about the components of an animal's environment, and have referred all environmental factors to four components: 'weather', 'food', 'other organisms' and 'a place in which to live'. Relatively little work has been devoted to the fourth component, and in particular there have been very few studies on the spatial or architectural properties of the habitat although these may be of great importance in habitat selection by many small invertebrates (Elton 1966). This is especially true of predatory animals, which are not bound to a particular food plant. Although several studies of spider ecology, notably those by Cherrett (1964) and Duffey (1962, 1963, 1966), have emphasized the importance of habitat structure, others have not done so, or have not treated this factor experimentally. This may be partly due to the difficulty of describing structurally complex vegetation in a meaningful way. The present investigation was carried out to establish whether, by using a structurally simple, but natural, environment, some information on the preferred structural habitat of one species of spider could be obtained. The system studied was a population of the argiopid spider Araneus diadematus Clerck in a limestone environment in northern England.