Spiders are often portrayed as lone, solitary creatures. They construct intricate webs and lie in wait for unsuspecting prey. This image of the antisocial arachnid leads many to believe that spiders do not have friends or social interactions. However, researchers have found that some spider species do exhibit complex social behaviors and relationships. In this article, we will explore what friendship means for spiders and discuss examples of social spiders.
What is friendship?
When considering whether spiders can have friends, we first need to define what we mean by “friendship.” Friendships are voluntary, long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between members of the same species. Friends engage in positive social interactions and often cooperate to achieve common goals. Some key qualities of friendship include:
- Repeated, non-aggressive interactions
- Cooperation
- Helping behaviors
- Preference for proximity and familiar individuals
Using this working definition, we can evaluate spider behaviors to see if they meet the criteria for friendship. Many solitary spider species likely do not have friends in this sense. But social spider species may form bonds analogous to human friendships.
Solitary vs. social spiders
Most of the approximately 47,000 spider species are solitary and aggressive toward other spiders. Solitary spiders stake out individual territories and only interact with others fleetingly to mate. Some examples of solitary spiders include:
- Jumping spiders
- Wolf spiders
- Fishing spiders
- Crab spiders
- Trapdoor spiders
These spiders hunt alone and do not work cooperatively. Their brief interactions tend to involve mating or competition for resources. They do not exhibit friendship behaviors like prolonged positive interactions, food sharing, or cooperation in nest building.
However, a small percentage of spider species display very different social tendencies. These social spider species live in family or mixed-family groups and work together to build shared nests, capture prey, and raise offspring. Some examples of social spider species include:
- Anelosimus spiders
- Stegodyphus spiders
- Dictyna spiders
- Theridiid spiders (Parasteatoda tepidariorum)
- Eresus spiders
- Mallos spiders
The complex social lives of these spiders suggest they may be capable of interactions analogous to human friendships. Next, we will take a closer look at their behaviors.
Evidence of friendships in social spiders
Researchers have documented some intriguing friendship-like behaviors in certain social spider species:
Cooperative nesting and food sharing
Social spiders work together to build large, communal webs and retreats. In some species, they will even share food via regurgitation or by leaving prey items in the nest for others.
Allogrooming
Social spiders will gently clean and stroke their companions, similar to primate social grooming. This may strengthen social bonds.
Kin recognition
Studies show social spiders can recognize relatives vs non-relatives. They tend to be less aggressive toward familiar individuals from their family or colony.
Preference for group living
If isolated early in life, social spiders show a preference for being housed together when given a choice later on. This suggests they gain some benefit from companionship.
| Spider Species | Social Behaviors |
|---|---|
| Anelosimus studiosus | Build communal nests, share food, prefer relatives over non-relatives |
| Stegodyphus dumicola | Live in mixed-family groups, cooperate in nest building and prey capture |
| Achaearanea wau | Frequent non-aggressive interactions, allogrooming, food sharing |
These examples suggest that at least some spider species likely form social bonds and attachments that share similarities with human friendships. However, more research is still needed to demonstrate the depth of their attachments and understand how cognition may influence spider sociality.
Challenges studying spider friendships
There are some challenges to definitively proving friendship in spiders:
- We cannot directly ask spiders about their subjective experiences or feelings toward others.
- Behaviors like allogrooming may have different significance across species.
- Preferences for group living could be explained by other benefits like safety in numbers.
- More controlled experiments are needed to test bonds between specific individuals over time.
Studying the social lives of spiders remains an interesting area for future research. As we learn more, scientists may discover even stronger evidence of friendship-like behavior in certain spider species.
Conclusion
Do spiders have friends? Social spider species that live cooperatively in colonies and families certainly seem to have some friendly relationships. They exhibitrepeated, non-aggressive interactions, cooperation in nesting and feeding, allogrooming, kin recognition, and preferences for group living. These behaviors suggest they form social bonds analogous in some ways to human friendships. However, most solitary spider species likely do not experience friendship given their brief, hostile interactions. Overall, it seems some spiders may very well have friends, but most do not. With better understanding of how cognition and emotions operate across species, researchers may one day more definitively determine the depths of attachments and meaning of relationships in the complex social lives of spiders.