Data from: Spider venom potency exhibits phylogenetic prey-specificity but does not trade-off with body size or silk use in prey capture

Spiders employ a diverse range of predator traits including potent venoms,
complex silk hunting strategies and mechanical strength coupled with
larger body sizes to capture prey. This trait diversity, along with the
quantifiable nature of venom potency, makes spiders an excellent group to
study evolutionary trade-offs. Yet, comparative approaches have been
historically confounded by the use of atypical prey models to measure
venom potency. Here, we account for such confounding issues by
incorporating the phylogenetic similarity between a spider's diet and
the species used to measure its venom potency. Using a phylogenetic
comparative analysis of 75 spider species to test how diet, silk use in
prey capture and body size drive venom yield and potency (LD50), we show
that spider venoms are generally more potent against models more closely
related to their natural prey, reflecting prey-specific patterns. We find
that venom yield scales sublinearly with size, reflecting the 0.75
allometric scaling predicted by metabolic theory, suggesting venom is
metabolically expensive in spiders. Our approach demonstrates how
contemporary comparative approaches can be applied to historic venom
potency measures to test fundamental evolutionary patterns in predator
traits.