Most spiders live on their own, becoming social to mate and raise their young before going back to being on their own again. They also generally display aggression to other spiders. But there are a few species that have adapted to live peacefully together in groups.
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There are two forms of sociable behaviour exhibited by spiders - cooperative species, which live in family groups, share communal nests and webs and work together to forage and raise young. Then there are colonial species, where spiders live together, but individuals generally forage, feed and raise their young alone.
Colonial species are more common than cooperative species, with an example being the Mandela's orb web spider (Singafrotypa mandela) – a spider named after Nelson Mandela.
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Cooperative species are rare – around 20 of the 50,000 different types of spiders on Earth. The best known of those is Agelena consociata, a kind of funnel web spider that lives in West Africa.
Then there is the species Anelosimus eximius, which, according to research conducted by scientists to find some of the record-breaking achievements of spiders, forms one of the largest cooperative groups of any spider.
Huge spider colony
Found in the rainforests of Central and South America, the webs of the Anelosimus eximius range in size – some span 10–25cm and contain just a few spiders, while others stretch 2–3m and contain thousands of individual spiders.
There are reports that some webs can reach more than 7m and contain up to 50,000 individual spiders.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Toulouse and the French National Centre for Scientific Research showed that when prey entered their web, the spiders all worked together to attack as one larger force.
Another example of a social spider is the African social spider (Stegodyphus dumicola), which lives with around 50 of her sisters. These spiders lay up to 50 eggs, then, once the spiderlings begin to hatch, the mum makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Image credit: Ingi Agnarsson via International Society of Arachnology.
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