Convergence between a mosquito-eating predator's natural diet and its prey-choice behaviour

Author:

Jackson Robert R.12,Deng Chan12,Cross Fiona R.12ORCID

Affiliation:

1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

2. International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Thomas Odhiambo Campus, PO Box 30, Mbita Point, Kenya

Abstract

On the basis of 1115 records of Evarcha culicivora feeding in the field, we can characterize this East African jumping spider (Salticidae) as being distinctively stenophagic. We can also, on the basis of laboratory prey-choice experiments, characterize E . culicivora as having a specialized prey-classification system and a hierarchy of innate preferences for various categories of mosquitoes and other arthropods. Prey from the field belonged to 10 arthropod orders, but 94.5% of the prey records were dipterans. Mosquitoes were the dominant prey (80.2% of the records), with the majority (82.9%) of the mosquitoes being females, and thereafter midges were the most common prey (9.2% of the records). Preference profiles that were determined from experiments showed strong convergence with natural diet in some, but not all, instances. In experiments, E . culicivora adults appeared to distinguish between six prey categories and juveniles between seven, with blood-carrying anopheline female mosquitoes being ranked highest in preference. For adults, this was followed by blood-carrying culicine female mosquitoes and then anopheline female mosquitoes not carrying blood, but these two preferences were reversed for juveniles. Moreover, for juveniles, but not for adults, anopheline male mosquitoes seem to be a distinct prey category ranked in preference after blood-carrying culicine females and, for both adults and juveniles, preference for midges is evident when the alternatives are not mosquitoes. These findings illustrate the importance of going beyond simply specifying preferred prey categories when characterizing predators as ‘specialized’ and a need to make clear conceptual distinctions between a predator's natural diet, the prey categories that are relevant to the predator, and the predator's prey-choicebehaviour.

Funder

National Geographic Society Education Foundation

Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund

New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

Multidisciplinary

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