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Behavior and Biology of Mygalomorphae

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Behaviour and Ecology of Spiders

Abstract

The infraorder Mygalomorphae comprises almost 3000 species. It is widely distributed all over the world, and about one third of the species included in this infraorder is represented in the Neotropics. The knowledge on several aspects of the biology of Mygalomorphae is relatively scarce in comparison with the Araneomorphae. However, recent studies developed all over the world, but especially in the Neotropical region, are continuously contributing to add information on foraging strategies, communication, reproductive biology, habitat selection, and defenses against natural enemies, minimizing the differences in the status of knowledge between these groups. In this chapter, we review some the main topics on Mygalomorphae biology, including behavior and ecology.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Anita Aisenberg (IIBCE) for her critical reading and help with the English. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sección Entomología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, 11400, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Fernando Pérez-Miles & Carlos Perafán

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  1. Fernando Pérez-Miles
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  2. Carlos Perafán
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Correspondence to Fernando Pérez-Miles .

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  1. Entomología, Biología Animal, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Carmen Viera

  2. Universidade Federal de Uberlândia Biology Institute, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Marcelo O. Gonzaga

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Pérez-Miles, F., Perafán, C. (2017). Behavior and Biology of Mygalomorphae. In: Viera, C., Gonzaga, M. (eds) Behaviour and Ecology of Spiders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65717-2_2

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