A spider that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing female mosquitoes as prey.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Spiders do not feed directly on vertebrate blood, but a small East African jumping spider (Salticidae), Evarcha culicivora, feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing as preferred prey female mosquitoes that have had recent blood meals. Experiments show that this spider can identify its preferred prey by sight alone and by odor alone. When presented with two types of size-matched motionless lures, E. culicivora consistently chose blood-fed female mosquitoes in preference to nonmosquito prey, male mosquitoes, and sugar-fed female mosquitoes (i.e., females that had not been feeding on blood). When the choice was between mosquitoes of different sizes (both blood- or both sugar-fed), small juveniles chose the smaller prey, whereas adults and larger juveniles chose the larger prey. However, preference for blood took precedence over preference for size (i.e., to get a blood meal, small individuals took prey that were larger than the preferred size, and larger individuals took prey that were smaller than the preferred size). When presented with odor from two prey types, E. culicivora approached the odor from blood-fed female mosquitoes significantly more often the odor of the prey that were not carrying blood.
منابع مشابه
The discerning predator: decision rules underlying prey classification by a mosquito-eating jumping spider.
Evarcha culicivora is an East African jumping spider that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-fed female Anopheles mosquitoes as prey. Previous studies have shown that this predator can identify its preferred prey even when restricted to using only visual cues. Here, we used lures and virtual mosquitoes to investigate the optical cues underlying this predator's prey-choice be...
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Evarcha culicivora, a jumping spider from East Africa, specialises in feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as preferred prey. Previous studies have shown that this predator can identify its preferred prey by sight alone and also by odour alone. Here we investigate how vision and olfaction work together. Our findings show that, for E. culicivora, cross-mod...
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
دوره 102 42 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2005