New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
Web use during predatory encounters between Portia fimbriata, an
araneophagic jumping spider, and its preferred prey, other jumping spiders
ROBERT J. CLARK
ROBERT R. JACKSON
Department of Zoology
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
Abstract Most salticids are cursorial spiders that prey
primarily on insects, but
Portia fimbriata is a web-building and
web-invading araneophagic salticid. When in its own web, in the field,
P.
fimbriata's prey was other spiders, especially
Jacksonoides
queenslandicus, another salticid spider that routinely enters spider webs.
How
P. fimbriata uses its web in predatory sequences with salticid prey
was investigated in the laboratory. Besides using the web as a vantage point
from which to initiate stalking of salticids seen near the web,
P.
fimbriata also dropped on draglines to attack salticids walking below the
web. Salticids that entered the web were ambushed when they came close.
Keywords Portia fimbriata; araneophagy; web-use;
jumping spiders
Z99035
Received 6 September 1999; accepted 13 December 1999
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1330K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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