spider that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing female mosquitoes as prey

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 prefer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2005-10, Vol.102 (42), p.15155-15160
Main Authors: Jackson, R.R, Nelson, X.J, Sune, G.O
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anopheles gambiae
Araneae
Arthropods
Behavior - physiology
Biological Sciences
Blood
Body length
Culicidae
Evarcha culicivora
Evolution
Feeding Behavior - physiology
feeding preferences
Female
Female animals
food chain
Goodness of fit
hematophagy
Humans
Male
Male animals
Mosquitoes
Mosquitos
Odorants
Odors
Predation
predator-prey relationships
Predatory Behavior - physiology
Salticidae
Spiders
Spiders - physiology
trophic relationships
Young animals
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0507398102