Mallos gregalis explained

Mallos gregalis is a spider species belonging to the family Dictynidae. It is endemic to Mexico.

Discovered by French naturalists in the previous century, M. gregalis were again brought to light in the 1970s by Wes Burgess through his research on their social lifestyle.^{[1] [2]} M. gregalis live in groups containing thousands of individuals together on a sheet-like spider web. Like other social spiders, the unique qualities of M. gregalis web help make their social lifestyle possible.^{[3] [4]} Their web preferentially transmits the vibrations of flies caught in the web while dampening out the vibrations caused by other spiders, thus allowing the M. gregalis spiders to distinguish between the prey and each other.^[5] The smell of previously eaten fly bodies helps attract other flies to M. gregalis′ web.^[6]

Notes and References

1. Burgess. J. Wesley. Social spiders. Scientific American. March 1976. 234. 3. 100–106. 10.1038/scientificamerican0376-100.
2. Book: Burgess, J. Wesley. P. Merrett. Arachnology, 7th International Congress. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London No. 42. 1978. Published for the Zoological Society of London by Academic Press. 978-0-12-613342-4. Social behavior in group-living spider species.
3. Burgess. J. Wesley. Witt. Peter N.. Spider webs: Design and engineering . Interdisciplinary Science Reviews . 1976 . 1. 4. 322–335. 10.1179/030801876789768327.
4. Witt. Peter N. . Burgess. J. Wesley . Spider webs: Design and engineering . Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau . 1978 . 31 . 269–282 .
5. Burgess. J. Wesley. Web-signal processing for tolerance and group predation in the social spider Mallos gregalis Simon . Animal Behaviour . 1979. 27. 157–164. 10.1016/0003-3472(79)90135-0.
6. Tietjen. William James. Ayyagari. L. Rao. Uetz. George W. . 1987 . Symbiosis between social spiders and yeast: the role in prey attraction . . 94. 1-2. 151–158. 10.1155/1987/67258. free.