Sibling Recognition and Nepotism in the Subsocial Funnel Web Spider, Coelotes terrestris (Araneae, Amaurobiidae)

Cooperative or non-territorial permanently social spiders are believed to have evolved from species showing subsocial maternal care. The transition from subsocial to cooperative social groups probably involved a transition from an outbreeding breeding system to one with inbreeding. Nepotistic recognition among siblings should facilitate the evolution of social cooperation through avoidance of inbreeding and maintenance of mutual tolerance between siblings. We conducted experiments to determine whether a mechanism for sibling recognition is present in the subsocial spider, Coelotes terrestris which displays extended maternal care in the form of food provisioning. The numbers of surviving individuals within unfed groups were observed and compared between non-sibling groups of ten spiderlings and groups of ten siblings. The number of survivors differed significantly between groups, with consistently fewer spiderlings surviving in the non-sibling groups than the sibling groups over the study period. This result suggests that sibling recognition and nepotism do occur in this subsocial species. The nepotism involved in the maternal social organization of the Coelotes might be an example of a preadaptation facilitating the evolution of permanent social life.