Niche partitioning in orbweaving spiders Meta menardi and Metellina merianae (Tetragnathidae)

Hypogean habitats are relatively simple exhibiting low diversity, low production and relative constancy of environmental factors, and are therefore appropriate for studying species coexistence in situ. We investigated the coexistence of two closely related, similarly sized orb-weaving spider species, Meta menardi and Metellina merianae, living syntopically in a Slovenian cave. We studied the annual dynamics of both species within a mixed population, and the impact of the ambient temperature, relative humidity, airflow and illumination, and compared their trophic niches to legacy data on prey of both species from 55 caves in Slovenia. We predicted a large overlap in their spatial niches and substantial differences in their temporal and trophic niches. We found that their spatial niches overlap greatly with few exceptions, mostly on the dates of notable meteorological changes in the cave but that their temporal niches differ significantly with r-strategy resembling epigean annual dynamic in M. merianae and a steady low abundance course in M. menardi within the cave. We also found that different predatory strategies significantly segregate their trophic niches: M. merianae uses a typical orb-weaving hunting strategy, while M. menardi combines web hunting with off-web hunting. Our findings suggest that both the diverse dynamics and trophic niches enable the coexistence of M. menardi and M. merianae despite their similar spatial niches, and that M. menardi, in particular, is optimally adapted to the epigean/hypogean ecotone.