New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
Prey preferences and visual discrimination ability of Brettus,
Cocalus and Cyrba, araneophagic jumping spiders (Araneae:
Salticidae) from Australia, Kenya and Sri Lanka
ROBERT R. JACKSON
Department of Zoology
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
email: r.jackson@zool.canterbury.ac.nz
Abstract Brettus adonis,
Brettus
albolimbatus,
Cocalus gibbosus,
Cyrba ocellata and
Cyrba
simoni (Salticidae: Spartaeinae) are genera of aberrant jumping spiders
from Australia, Kenya and Sri Lanka that routinely include web-building spiders
in their diet. The present paper is the first detailed study of prey choice by
these five species. Three basic types of tests were used: different types of
prey provided on successive days (alternate-day tests), two types of prey
provided at the same time (simultaneous-presentation tests), or a second prey
type provided while the predator was already feeding (alternative-prey tests).
Each species during alternate-day and simultaneous-presentation tests chose
web-building spiders in preference to insects, both when `well fed' (last meal
7 days before testing) and when starved (last meal 14 days before testing).
Insects and spiders were taken indiscriminately after 21 days of fasting. The
same preferences were evident when dead, motionless lures instead of living
prey were used, indicating that, while relying on optical cues alone, each
species can distinguish between spiders and insects independent of the
different movement patterns of these different prey. There was no evidence of
preference in alternative-prey tests.
Keywords predation; vision; Salticidae; spiders
Z99010
Received 8 April 1999; accepted 25 August 1999
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (748K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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