Population Structure in an Indian Cooperative Spider, Stegodyphus sarasinorum Karsch (Eresidae)

Abstract

Twenty-nine colonies of a population of the cooperative spider Stegodyphus sarasinorum Karsch (Eresidae), from two sites in Bangalore, Karnataka State, India, were examined using protein allozyme electrophoresis . Thirty-five enzyme systems were examined . Twenty-two enzymes (the products of 25 putative loci) gave scorable results . Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) werepolymorphic with two alleles each; hexokinase exhibited uninterpretable variation . The rest were monomorphic. One LDH allele was found at only one of two collection sites, and one G6PDH allele was found only at the other collection site. The pattern of variation in S. sarasinorum is similar to that found in three other studies of cooperative spiders : extreme population subdivision, with most colonies consisting of identical homozygotes.