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Introduction
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2015 - December 2015
August 2011 - December 2011
October 2009 - November 2009
Education
October 2008 - September 2013
October 2000 - October 2008
Publications
Publications (69)
Kleptoparasitism, the theft of resources from another organism, is a survival strategy found across the animal kingdom. Many argyrodinae cobweb spiders (Theridiidae) are obligatory kleptoparasites that have largely abandoned web building, relying instead on webs of larger hosts. Theory predicts, and limited prior research indicates, that kleptopara...
The ideal free distribution (IFD) theory predicts that individuals are free to move among habitat patches and distribute among them “ideally,” in order to maximize individual evolutionary fitness. Size and quality of habitat patches then should directly impact the number of individuals occupying them, and connectivity of habitat patches likely play...
Ants and termites are insect groups that make up most of the insect biomass in tropical ecosystems. Due to their social structure and abundance, they are some of the most bountiful prey available to other invertebrates such as spiders. However, ants and termites possess dangerous defense strategies, thus limiting their accessibility to general pred...
Recent declines in insect abundances, especially populations of wild pollinators, pose a threat to many natural and agricultural ecosystems. Traditional species monitoring relies on morphological character identification and is inadequate for efficient and standardized surveys. DNA barcoding has become a standard approach for molecular identificati...
Recent declines in insect abundances, especially populations of wild pollinators, pose a threat to many natural and agricultural ecosystems. Traditional species monitoring relies on morphological character identification and is inadequate for efficient and standardized surveys. DNA barcoding has become a standard approach for molecular identificati...
Higher-level classifications often must account for monotypic taxa representing depauperate evolutionary lineages and lacking synapomorphies of their better-known, well-defined sister clades. In a ranked (Linnean) or unranked (phylogenetic) classification system, discovering such a depauperate taxon does not necessarily invalidate the rank classifi...
Spiders are notoriously solitary and cannibalistic, with instances of colonial or social lifestyles in only about 50-60, or ~0.1% of 50,000 described species. Population analyses indicate that most colonies consist of multiple cohorts formed by close relatives. Territorial social spiders facultatively form colonies by interlinking individual webs,...
Natural silks crafted by spiders comprise some of the most versatile materials known. Artificial silks–based on the sequences of their natural brethren–replicate some desirable biophysical properties and are increasingly utilized in commercial and medical applications today. To characterize the repertoire of protein sequences giving silks their bio...
The concept of environmental DNA (eDNA) utilizes nucleic acids of organisms directly from the environment. Recent breakthrough studies have successfully detected a wide spectrum of prokaryotic and eukaryotic eDNA from a variety of environments, ranging from ancient to modern, and from terrestrial to aquatic. With their diversity and ubiquity in nat...
Examining the role of color in mate choice without testing what colors the study animal is capable of seeing can lead to ill-posed hypotheses and erroneous conclusions. Here, we test the seemingly reasonable assumption that the sexually dimorphic red coloration of the male jumping spider Saitis barbipes is distinguishable, by females, from adjacent...
Adult body size, development time, and growth rates are components of organismal life histories, which crucially influence fitness and are subject to trade-offs. If selection is sex-specific, male and female developments can eventually lead to different optimal sizes. This can be achieved through developmental plasticity and sex-specific developmen...
Subterranean environments of Iran are severely understudied. Here, we advance
the knowledge of Iranian cave biodiversity by following three goals: (i) to investigate
Iranian caves for troglobiotic beetles; (ii) to understand the phylogenetic relationships
and estimate the timing of Iranian cave colonization by Duvalius Delarouzée, 1859;
and (iii) t...
Reconstructing biogeographic history is challenging when dispersal biology of studied species is poorly understood, and they have undergone a complex geological past. Here, we reconstruct the origin and subsequent dispersal of coin spiders (Nephilidae: Herennia Thorell), a clade of 14 species inhabiting tropical Asia and Australasia. Specifically,...
The current COVID-19 pandemic caught the decision makers in many countries sub-optimally prepared to respond. To better cope with similar situations in the future, it is vital to understand the major predictors of health-beneficial behavior and adherence to imposed mitigation measures and guidelines. To tailor the promotion of government-imposed me...
The spider major ampullate (MA) silk exhibits high tensile strength and extensibility and is typically a blend of MaSp1 and MaSp2 proteins with the latter comprising glycine–proline–glycine–glycine-X repeating motifs that promote extensibility and supercontraction. The MA silk from Darwin's bark spider ( Caerostris darwini ) is estimated to be two...
Simple Summary
The role of personality in sexual selection has mostly been investigated on vertebrate species, in which males provide direct benefits to females or offspring. Less is known about the links between behavioral variation and sexual selection in species where males provide only sperm, while the advantages of female-choice are due to mal...
Objective: To investigate the perception and adherence to mitigation measures during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Slovenia by examining their trends across several sociodemographic categories and personality dimensions. Methods: Descriptive and correlative analyses were used to examine which sociodemographic and personality factors we...
The concept of environmental DNA (eDNA) utilizes nucleic acids of organisms directly from the environment. Recent breakthrough studies have successfully detected a wide spectrum of prokaryotic and eukaryotic eDNA from a variety of environments, ranging from ancient to modern, and from terrestrial to aquatic. These numerous sources promise to establ...
Vicariance and dispersal events, combined with intricate global climatic history, have left an imprint on the spatiotemporal distribution and diversity of many organisms. Anelosimus cobweb spiders (Theridiidae), are organisms ranging in behavior from solitary to highly social,l with a cosmopolitan distribution in temperate- to-tropical areas. Their...
Darwin's bark spider (Caerostris darwini) produces giant orb webs from dragline silk that can be twice as tough as other silks, making it the toughest biological material. This extreme toughness comes from increased extensibility relative to other draglines. We show C. darwini dragline-producing major ampullate (MA) glands highly express a novel si...
Slovenia is a biodiversity hotspot due to its location at the junction of four biogeographical regions with different ecological conditions. Because of this, 37.87% of
Slovenia’s area is currently classified as Natura 2000 sites, the highest share among the 28 EU countries. Slovenian flora comprises 3472 vascular taxa and is rich in endemic
species...
Spiders with around 48,000 recorded species are major terrestrial predators and thus crucially important for ecosystem functioning. They are widely used as research models and for biodiversity displays and sometimes also kept as pets. Nevertheless, we are not aware of any legal ethical rules bound to spider welfare during rearing or research. To se...
Instances of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) provide the context for rigorous tests of biological rules of size evolution, such as Cope's rule (phyletic size increase), Rensch's rule (allometric patterns of male and female size), as well as male and female body size optima. In certain spider groups, such as the golden orbweavers (Nephilidae), extreme...
Selection pressures leading to extreme, female-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in spiders continue to be debated. It has been proposed that males of sexually size dimorphic spiders could be small because gravity constrains adult agility (locomotor abilities). Accordingly, small males should achieve higher vertical climbing speeds and should be...
Instances of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) provide the context for rigorous tests of biological rules of size evolution, such as Copes Rule (phyletic size increase), Renschs Rule (allometric patterns of male and female size), as well as male and female body size optima. In certain spider groups, such as the golden orbweavers (Nephilidae), extreme fe...
Though not uncommon in other animals, heterospecific mating is rarely reported in arachnids. We investigated sexual interactions among four closely related and syntopical African golden orbweb spiders, Nephila inaurata, N. fenestrata, N. komaci, and N. senegalensis. In two South African localities, female webs were often inhabited by heterospecific...
Leaf masquerade-an animal resembling leaves that are inedible for predators or innocuous for prey-is well known in insects but less so in arachnids. We report a case of a striking morphological and behavioral adaptation that can be labeled as leaf masquerade in an undescribed spider species (Poltys C.L. Koch, 1843, Araneidae) from southwest China....
The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios ''barcodes'' (whether s...
The results of the barcode matching test.
Original sequences this project submitted to BOLD and GenBank (only those on GenBank are also publically available on BOLD, for all others, see http://ezlab.zrc-sazu.si/dna/). Legend: MNH, SI = National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution; EZ LAB = Evolutionary Zoology Lab, ZRC SAZU; NMBE = Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde...
The downloaded sequences used in the species comparison.
Several clades of spiders whose females evolved giant sizes are known for extreme sexual behaviors such as sexual cannibalism, opportunistic mating, mate-binding, genital mutilation, plugging, and emasculation. However, these behaviors have only been tested in a handful of size dimorphic spiders. Here, we bring another lineage into the picture by r...
The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios “barcodes” (whether sin...
The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios “barcodes” (whether sin...
Bark spiders (genus Caerostris Thorell 1868) are important models in biomaterial research due to the remarkable biomechanical properties of the silk of C. darwini Kuntner & Agnarsson 2010 and its gigantic web. They also exhibit female gigantism and are promising candidates for coevolutionary research on sexual dimorphism. However, Caerostris spider...
Orb-weaving spiders are good objects for evolutionary research, but phylogenetic relationships among and within orb-weaving lineages are poorly understood. Here we present the first species-level molecular phylogeny that includes the enigmatic orb weavers ‘Zygiellidae’ and Caerostris. Zygiellidae is interesting for the evolution of the sector web,...
Body size affects almost all aspects of animals' resource use, and its scaling syntheses are well established in most biological fields. In contrast, how behavioral variation scales with body size is understudied. Understanding how body size influences behavior is important as behavior responds more readily to natural selection than many other trai...
Corrected TaxPub XML of the original publication
Corrected occurrences as Darwin Core Archive
The sentence with corrected counts should now read: "We here report on the faunistic part of this project, which resulted in 320 species ( 224 in Slovenia, 142 in Switzerland) for which identification was reasonably established".
We investigated the mating biology of the previously unstudied central European spider Leviellus thorelli (Ausserer 1871) by staging laboratory mating trials using males and females of varying mating histories. Our aim was to seek common themes in sexual behaviors of the sexually size-monomorphic ''zygiellid'' spiders with their putatively close re...
Given the limited success of past and current conservation efforts, an alternative approach is to preserve tissues and genomes of targeted organisms in cryobanks to make them accessible for future generations. Our pilot preservation project aimed to obtain, expertly identify, and permanently preserve a quarter of the known spider species diversity...
Evolutionary convergence of phenotypic traits provides evidence for their functional success. The origin of the orb web was a critical event in the diversification of spiders that facilitated a spectacular radiation of approximately 12 000 species and promoted the evolution of novel web types. How the orb web evolved from ancestral web types, and h...
The biogenetic law posits that the ontogeny of an organism recapitulates the pattern of evolutionary changes. Morphological evidence has offered some support for, but also considerable evidence against, the hypothesis. However, biogenetic law in behavior remains underexplored. As physical manifestation of behavior, spider webs offer an interesting...
Sexual cannibalism particularly before mating is costly for the male victim but also for the female aggressor if she risks remaining unmated. The aggressive spillover hypothesis explains the persistence of this behavior as a maladaptive side effect of positive selection on aggressiveness in a foraging context. The hypothesis predicts that the occur...
Nephila are known for the greatest degrees of sexual size dimorphism among orb weaving spiders (Araneoidea) and thus among terrestrial animals. However, a meaningful quantification of the dimorphism is lacking and the proximate developmental mechanisms of female gigantism are poorly understood, being attributed solely to female delayed maturation....
Males usually produce mating plugs to reduce sperm competition. However, females can conceivably also produce mating plugs in order to prevent unwanted, superfluous and energetically costly matings. In spiders-appropriate models for testing plugging biology hypotheses-mating plugs may consist of male genital parts and/or of amorphous covers consist...
Nephila pilipes
mating: male approach followed by unsuccessful insertion attempt.
(MPG)
Nephila pilipes
mating: male successful insertion.
(MPG)
Nephila pilipes
mating: male performing mate-binding in-between insertion attempts.
(MPG)
Although the diversity of spider orb web architectures is impressive, few lineages have evolved orb webs larger than 1m in diameter. Until recently, such web gigantism was reported only in a few nephilids and araneids. However, new studies on bark spiders (Caerostris) of Madagascar report a unique case of web gigantism: Darwin's bark spider (C. dar...
C. darwini using bridging silk. Note the sail-like terminus of the bridging silk.
(MPG)
C. darwini using bridging silk. Note the sail-like terminus of the bridging silk.
(MPG)
Interspecific coevolution is well described, but we know significantly less about how multiple traits coevolve within a species, particularly between behavioral traits and biomechanical properties of animals' "extended phenotypes". In orb weaving spiders, coevolution of spider behavior with ecological and physical traits of their webs is expected....
Sexual cannibalism particularly before mating is costly for the male victim but also for the female aggressor if she risks remaining unmated. The aggressive spillover hypothesis explains the persistence of this behavior as a maladaptive side effect of positive selection on aggressiveness in a foraging context. The hypothesis predicts that the occur...
Genital amputation, that is, genital damage or loss, seems maladaptive because it renders the amputee functionally sterile, but is nevertheless common in sexually dimorphic spiders. In these species, male genital amputation correlates with plugging of female genitals and with sexual cannibalism. Genital amputation in male spiders may be partial or...
The architecture of vertical aerial orb webs may be affected by spider size and gravity or by the available web space, in addition to phylogenetic and/or developmental factors. Vertical orb web asymmetry measured by hub displacement has been shown to increase in bigger and heavier spiders; however, previous studies have mostly focused on adult and...
The species classically grouped in the genus Zygiella F.O. Pickard-Cambridge 1902 are thought to all possess a characteristic orb web feature — a spiral-free sector in the upper part of the orb. Zygiella s.l. has recently been split into four genera, Zygiella s.s., Leviellus Wunderlich 2004, Parazygiella Wunderlich 2004 and Stroemiellus Wunderlich...
Spider web research bridges ethology, ecology, functional morphology, material science, development, genetics, and evolution. Recent work proposes the aerial orb web as a one-time key evolutionary innovation that has freed spider-web architecture from substrate constraints. However, the orb has repeatedly been modified or lost within araneoid spide...
Plugging of female genitals via male sexual mutilation is a common sexual repertoire in some nephilid spiders (Herennia, Nephila, Nephilengys), but the behavioral pathways leading to emasculation are poorly understood. Recent work suggests that copulating Herennia males damage their reproductive organs during copulation and then voluntarily, and st...
The classical Karst (Kras in Slovenian) is a limestone karst plateau of south-western Slovenia and northeastern Italy surrounded by flysch or alluvial areas. We explored surface spider species richness in the Karst by conducting a season-long quantitative inventory of the epigean fauna. By examining three localities, each with three succession-stag...
