Love them, leave them, or eat them Intraspecific relationships in the Golden Orb Weaver Nephila clavipes

Spiders from the genus Nephila display a variety of group-forming behaviors: from solitary to group-living to those that cannibalize. The proximate causes for this continuum of gregarious/non-gregarious behaviors are still uncertain. In the first two chapters of this thesis I explored facultative aggregations using a series of behavioral experiments on the new world orb-weaving spider Nephila clavipes. There are known benefits to living in aggregations such as increased prey consumption (Peng et al. 2012) or mate attraction (Kasumovic and Jordan 2013), and known negatives such as competition (Rypstra 1985) and danger of aggression (Hoffmaster 1986). In Chapter 1 I investigate whether N. clavipes show behaviors that actively promote the formation of aggregations. SpecificallyI tested the hypothesis that N. clavipes females would be likely to actively follow a conspecific to a new location if placed in proximity to a signal. In addition, when placed in a habitat with varying food densities, I hypothesized that the spiders would aggregate in all areas, rather than only in areas of high prey density based on a small preliminary experiment and field observations. These experiments were tested solely female N. clavipes spiders, as males do not build webs in this species. My results agree with these hypotheses. N. clavipes spiders follow other individuals, particularly if the are shorter in abdomen length (smaller). In addition these spiders form aggregations independently of prey density.;Observing this consistency in following conspecific females led to the work presented in Chapter 2. Chapter 2 tests the hypothesis that those spiders that followed other individuals more often would also be found along a shy/bold axis with bold spiders being more aggregative. I predicted consistent differences in individual behaviors, which would explain the facultative nature of group interactions and aggregation formation in Nephila. While I found individual variation in following behavior, the tested intraspecific interactions did not show the same consistent behavioral patterns. These results were surprising as the both the literature and my preliminary results indicated a likelihood of consistent "personality" in aggregative behaviors. I explored a variety of biological, theoretical, and historical explanations for why I found no relationship between spider personality and following behavior. It appears that intraspecific behavior in N. clavipes is quite plastic, allowing these spiders to take advantage of multiple social niches when presented with opportunities to do so. The final chapter of my thesis explores a very different topic: the relationship between mentoring and student success. This opinion piece explores the importance of the mentor-mentee relationship and offers suggestions and encouragement for improvement from both sides.