ABSTRACT Rattan spines are most often regarded as an identification trait and perhaps as a physical protection structure. In this study, we study the spinescence traits from five different species rattan: Daemonorops lewisiana, Daemonorops geniculata, Calamus castaneus, Plectomia griffithii, and Korthalsia scortechinii. We tested length, width, angle, strength, spine density, cross-section surface, spine color, and leaf trichomes (only for D. lewisiana, C. castaneus and D. geniculata). We also tested whether the spines were capable of deterring small climbing mammals (for Plectomia griffithii and Calamus castaneus) by using a choice selection experiment. Due to a variety of spine traits, we could not categorize whether any species is more or less spinescent than the others. We suggest that spines have a much more significant role than merely as a physical defense and work together with other rattan characteristics. This is also evidenced by our choice selection experiment, in which the spines on a single stem donot deter small climbing mammals. However, this is a work in progress, and we have outlined several alternative methods to be used in future work.

中文翻译：

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藤刺作为威慑？不同种类藤条的刺刺研究

摘要 藤刺通常被视为一种识别特征，也可能是一种物理保护结构。在这项研究中，我们研究了五种不同藤种的刺状特征：Daemonorops lewisiana、Daemonorops geniculata、Calamus castaneus、Plectomia griffithii 和 Korthalsia scortechinii。我们测试了长度、宽度、角度、强度、脊柱密度、横截面表面、脊柱颜色和叶毛（仅适用于 D. lewisiana、C. castaneus 和 D. geniculata）。我们还通过选择选择实验测试了刺是否能够阻止小型攀爬哺乳动物（对于 Plectomia griffithii 和 Calamus castaneus）。由于脊椎特征的多样性，我们无法对任何物种是否比其他物种多或少多刺进行分类。我们认为，刺不仅作为物理防御，而且与其他藤条特征一起发挥作用，具有更重要的作用。我们的选择选择实验也证明了这一点，其中单个茎上的刺不会阻止小型攀爬哺乳动物。然而，这是一项正在进行的工作，我们已经概述了几种可在未来工作中使用的替代方法。