Stano Pekar

Stano Pekar
Masaryk University | MUNI · Department of Botany and Zoology

PhD

About

311
Publications
115,696
Reads
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8,102
Citations
Introduction
I am fascinated by various facets of the natural history of arachnids. In particular, I focus on interactions between spiders and their prey. I have studied adaptations of spiders in prey specialization, use of mimicry as a defence against predators, sexual conflict in arachnids, the role of spiders in biological control, the taxonomy of Zodarion and Myrmarachne spiders, and parasitoid host manipulation.
Additional affiliations
January 2005 - present
Masaryk University
Position
  • Professor (Full)
January 1994 - December 2004
Crop Research Institute
Position
  • Researcher

Publications

Publications (311)
Article
Full-text available
Species traits are essential for inferences on ecology and the evolution of organisms. Spiders are the most abundant and diversified terrestrial predators, playing an important role in a range of ecosystem services. Here, I present datasetse on all traits of zodariid spiders, which are known to be free-living ground-dwellers occurring on all contin...
Article
Spiders and ants are infrequent types of prey in the diet of spiders. Both spider- and ant-eating were found in thomisid (crab) spiders but their origin remains unclear. Our goal was to gather data on spider- and ant-eating habits in thomisid spiders, construct a family-level phylogeny, and estimate when these habits evolved. Using prey acceptance...
Article
Major changes in species geographical ranges are usually explained by climatic changes or human activities. Intrinsic causes, such as endosymbiotic agents, have not yet been considered thoroughly, despite their potential to affect profoundly the biology of organisms such as arthropods and their aim to maximize their own transmission, e.g. by alteri...
Article
The handling hypothesis assumes that large animals have broader diets than small animals because small animals are restricted to small prey while large animals can handle both small and large prey. On the other hand, the optimal foraging hypothesis assumes no relationship between predator body size and diet breadth because large predators should sh...
Article
Mimics are under selection from a community of predators possessing different perception abilities and modes of prey capture, yet the efficacy of Batesian/Müllerian mimicry in a mimetic complex has typically been tested using a single predator. The males of Eresus spiders appear to mimic black-and-red coloured insects, and in particular ladybird be...
Preprint
Full-text available
In a few species, males often face a choice between mating and/or cannibalizing females. Various factors influence this decision, making it essential to decipher the role of male behavioural variation. In particular, aggressiveness has been proposed to face sexual selection and increase the incidence of cannibalism in such systems. In this study, w...
Preprint
Full-text available
Spiders, ubiquitous and abundant predators in terrestrial ecosystems, often bear the weight of an unjust negative perception. However, these remarkable creatures stand as unsung heroes within our ecosystems, wielding significant influence by contributing a multitude of ecosystem services critical to both the planet's future and human well-being. He...
Article
Disentangling the genomic intricacies underlying speciation and the causes of discordance between sources of evidence can offer remarkable insights into evolutionary dynamics. The ant-eating spider Zodarion nitidum, found across the Middle East and Egypt, displays yellowish and blackish morphs that co-occur sympatrically. These morphs additionally...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cultures of the stored product mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae are often single-infected by one of intracellular bacteria Cardinium or Wolbachia . No naturally occurring multi-infected Cardinium and Wolbachia a T. putrescentiae mites are known. Under laboratory conditions, we mixed two single-infected mite cultures of each endosymbiont to obtain four...
Article
Full-text available
Venom represents a key adaptation of many venomous predators, allowing them to immobilise prey quickly through chemical rather than physical warfare. Evolutionary arms races between prey and a predator are believed to be the main factor influencing the potency and composition of predatory venoms. Predators with narrowly restricted diets are expecte...
Article
Full-text available
Conservation biocontrol, the regulation of crop pests by naturally occurring biocontrol agents (e.g., predators and parasitoids), is predominantly monitored throughout periods of primary crop growth when pests exert the most observable impact on yields. Pest‐focused agricultural biomonitoring often overlooks post‐harvest, winter and even early‐seas...
Article
Jumping spiders display some of the richest visually mediated behaviours in nature. Vision is indeed the most important sensory modality in these spiders where motion detection and response to visual stimuli allow key behaviours such as hunting, escaping from predators and mating. These spiders have been used in various experiments demonstrating th...
Preprint
Full-text available
1. Conservation biocontrol, the regulation of crop pests by naturally-occurring biocontrol agents (e.g., predators and parasitoids), is predominantly monitored throughout periods of primary crop growth when pests exert the most observable impact on yields. Pest-focused agricultural biomonitoring often overlooks post-harvest, winter and even early-s...
Article
Full-text available
Forest harvest detection techniques have recently gained increased attention due to the varied results they provide. Correctly determining the acreage of clear-cut areas is crucial for carbon sequestration. Detecting clear-cut areas using airborne laser scanning (ALS) could be an accurate method for determining the extent of clear-cut areas and the...
Article
Full-text available
Animal phenotypic traits are utilised in a variety of studies. Often the traits are measured from images. The processing of a large number of images can be challenging; nevertheless, image analytical applications, based on neural networks, can be an effective tool in automatic trait collection. Our aim was to develop a stand-alone application to ef...
Article
Full-text available
BACKGROUND In spite of their importance as arthropod predators, spiders have received little attention in the risk assessment of pesticides. In addition, research has mainly focused on a few species commonly found in agricultural habitats. Spiders living in more natural ecosystems may also be exposed to and affected by pesticides, including insecti...
Data
Supporting information for the publication: Sensitivity of spiders from different ecosystems to lambda-cyhalothrin: effects of phylogeny and climate
Article
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This study explores the effect of nutritional composition on the fitness of consumers in a quadri-trophic food web. Specifically, we studied how enrichment of the food of fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830) transfers to the spider Phylloneta impressa (L. Koch) (Theridiidae) and its parasitoid wasp, Zatypota percontatoria Mueller (Ich...
Article
An analysis of the diets of reptiles is essential for understanding the role of reptiles in the ecosystem and the employment of successful conservation management plans. For this purpose, noninvasive and invasive methods to identify consumed prey have been used. Here, we investigated the diet of male and female European Green Lizards (Lacerta virid...
Article
Many prey species employ multiple defenses during interactions with predators. Multiple defenses can provide a selective advantage against a single predator at different stages of the interaction or attack, as well as against multiple predator types. However, the efficacy of multiple defenses both during different sequences of an attack and against...
Article
Full-text available
Ecological specialists constitute relevant case studies for understanding the mechanisms, potential and limitations of evolution. The species-rich and strictly myrmecophagous spiders of the genus Zodarion show diversified defence mechanisms, including myrmecomorphy of different ant species and nocturnality. Through Hybridization Capture Using RAD P...
Article
The numbers per tiller (abundance) and per unit area of ground (population density) of the dominant cereal aphids in winter wheat crops, Sitobion avenae (Fabricius) and Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) were recorded from 2000–2015. The results were used to test the hypothesis that at the population peak and 4 weeks previously,...
Article
Full-text available
Prey seldom rely on a single type of antipredator defence, often using multiple defences to avoid predation. In many cases, selection in different contexts may favour the evolution of multiple defences in a prey. However, a prey may use multiple defences to protect itself during a single predator encounter. Such “defence portfolios” that defend pre...
Preprint
Full-text available
Jumping spiders display some of the richest visually-mediated behaviors in nature. Vision is indeed the most important sensory modality in these spiders where motion detection and response to visual stimuli allow key behaviors such as hunting, escaping from predators, and mating. These spiders have been used in various experiments demonstrating the...
Article
Wolbachia is known to manipulate a host’s reproduction to promote its own transmission. However, recent studies show that it can influence some behavioural processes in hosts, including personality, and personality-related behaviours. So far, information about the effects of Wolbachia infection on the host’s non-reproductive behaviours is still ver...
Article
Full-text available
Modern agricultural pest management systems rely on naturally occurring generalist predators to promote pest suppression. Still, little research has been done to assess their overall effectiveness, especially over the winter period when their potential is high. In this study, we focused on three genera of winter-active spiders Clubiona, Philodromus...
Article
Full-text available
Dermatophagoides farinae is an important house dust mite species that causes allergies in humans worldwide. In houses, these mites are commonly found in actively used mattresses and pillows, which provide food (i.e. sloughed skin and microorganisms), moisture, and increased temperature for faster mite development. In mattresses, feeding mites prefe...
Article
Full-text available
Prey-specialised spiders are adapted to capture specific prey items, including dangerous prey. The venoms of specialists are often prey-specific and less complex than those of generalists, but their venom composition has not been studied in detail. Here, we investigated the venom of the prey-specialised white-tailed spiders (Lamponidae: Lampona), w...
Article
Full-text available
During a recent investigation of ant-mimicking arthropods in Costa Rica, two new species of salticid spiders were discovered. Here, I provide descriptions of the two species, Myrmapana costaricaensis sp. nov. and Corcovetella galianoae sp. nov. The former species has two forms; the dark form resembles Neoponera ants, while the light form resembles...
Article
Full-text available
Personality traits, such as boldness and/or aggressiveness, have long been accepted to have a profound influence on many aspects of the lives of animals, including foraging. However, little is known about how personality traits shape the use of a particular attack strategy. Ground spiders use either venom or silk attack to immobilize prey. In this...
Article
Although genomic data is boosting our understanding of evolution, we still lack a solid framework to perform reliable genome-based species delineation. This problem is especially critical in the case of phylogeographically structured organisms, with allopatric populations showing similar divergence patterns as species. Here, we assess the species l...
Article
Full-text available
Insects in the pupal stage are vulnerable to various predators because the pupa is immobile. The pupas of parasitoid ichneumonid wasps (Ichneumonidae) associated with spider hosts have evolved two lines of defense against predators, namely a cocoon spun by the parasitoid larva and a web provided by the spider host. The web is derived from a normal...
Article
Although winter in the temperate zone is considered to be the period of arthropod quiescence, some pests and their natural enemies remain active and interact in simplified food-webs. Limited information exists about the relative importance of top-down and bottom-up processes regulating arthropod food-webs and their spatio-temporal dynamics during w...
Article
Prey species gain protection by imitating signals of unpalatable models in defensive mimicry. Mimics have been traditionally classified as Batesian (palatable mimic resembling an unpalatable model) or Müllerian (unpalatable mimic resembling a similarly unpalatable model). However, recent studies suggest that rather than discrete categories, the phe...
Poster
Full-text available
In this study, we investigate the presence of two widespread endosymbionts, Cardinium and Wolbachia, among different populations of Zodarion rubidum across Europe.
Article
Full-text available
Myrmecomorphy is the most frequent type of Batesian mimicry. Myrmecomorphic species differ in the accuracy with which they resemble ants, however, the hypothesis of the co-evolution of mimetic traits has been rarely tested. Here, we measured dozens of traits of colour, shape, size, and behaviour, and quantified objectively the resemblance between d...
Article
Arachnida represent a hyperdiverse group of terrestrial arthropods. Although arachnids are mostly predators, they often fall prey to other predators. Here, the diversity of enemies and the defences of arachnids which are used against their predators is reviewed. The main predators of arachnids are other arachnids, followed by insects, mammals and b...
Article
Full-text available
Biological divergence results from several mechanisms. Defensive mechanisms, such as Batesian mimicry, can cause reproductive isolation via temporal segregation in foraging activity, particularly, in species that closely associate with their model. This seems to be the case of ant‐eating spiders, which can be inaccurate Batesian mimics of their pre...
Article
Winter-active arthropod predators (like vegetation-dwelling spiders) significantly suppress pest populations during winter in pome fruit orchards in Central Europe. Clubiona spiders are very abundant in orchards and have been observed to be active during winter. Here, we performed laboratory experiments to assess the movement and predation activity...
Article
Intraguild predation (IGP) is a common interaction between generalist predators when they competitively exploit similar resources and prey on each other. Theoretical models predict limitations for intraguild predator coexistence unless some mechanisms, such as the utilization of alternative prey (i.e. trophic niche partitioning) and cannibalism, in...
Article
Full-text available
Online open databases are increasing in number, usefulness, and ease of use. There are currently two main global databases for spiders, the World Spider Catalogue (WSC) and the World Spider Trait (WST) database. Both are regularly used by thousands of researchers. Computational tools that allow effective processing of large data are now part of the...
Article
Full-text available
Generalist predators have evolved a variety of behavioural adaptations in prey capture to effectively subdue different prey types. Such predators use a conditional hunting strategy. Among spiders, representatives of Gnaphosidae are known to use either venom attack (subduing prey with venom) or silk attack (subduing prey with silk). In this study, w...
Article
Trophic specialists often follow unique evolutionary pathways, show potential applications in biological control, and suffer from increased ecological vulnerability. The myrmecophagous spider genus Zodarion, highly diversified across the Mediterranean, is among the few predatory groups showing strict stenophagy. Most Zodarion species display narrow...
Article
Aim The evolution and maintenance of accurate Batesian mimicry has been explained by several hypotheses built upon relaxed selection. However, selection can be influenced by ecological factors, such as habitat type or geographical distribution, which have not been considered. Location Worldwide. Taxon Araneae. Methods I gathered data on body siz...
Article
Full-text available
In Batesian mimicry, the mimic gains protection from predators by imitating a noxious model. Some myrmecomorphic species use ants as models as ants have strong defensive capabilities. Ants are highly mobile models, and besides colour, shape, and size, mimics also imitate their movement. Yet, former studies focused mainly on static traits. Here, I t...
Article
Populations of generalist predators are often comprised of a mixture of specialist and generalist individuals and this intraspecific variation in prey utilization may affect pest suppression. However, little is known about seasonal changes in prey utilization by generalist predators, especially during winter, when some generalist predators exert st...
Article
RAD sequencing yields large amounts of genome-wide data at a relatively low cost and without requiring previous taxon-specific information, making it ideal for evolutionary studies of highly diversified and neglected organisms. However, concerns about information decay with phylogenetic distance have discouraged its use for assessing supraspecific...
Article
Full-text available
Spiders are a highly diversified group of arthropods and play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems as ubiquitous predators, which makes them a suitable group to test a variety of eco-evolutionary hypotheses. For this purpose, knowledge of a diverse range of species traits is required. Until now, data on spider traits have been scattered acro...
Preprint
Full-text available
Online open databases are increasing in number, usefulness, and ease of use. There are currently two main global databases exclusive for spiders, the World Spider Catalogue (WSC) and the World Spider Trait (WST) database. Both are regularly used by thousands of researchers. Computational tools that allow effective processing of large data are now p...
Article
Spiders are among the most diversified and abundant predators in terrestrial ecosystems across the world, but information on their prey is limited. Particularly, there is paucity of data for prey-specialised species, such as palpimanid spiders. Here we investigated the trophic strategy of four palpimanid species (Diaphorocellus biplagiatus, Otiotho...
Article
There are various modern pest-control management systems used in the current apple production, such as integrated pest management (IPM) or organic systems. All aims to support occurrence of natural enemies that should help to reduce populations of pests. Here we investigated the effect of fungicide-treated and fungicide-free (resistant tree varieti...
Article
Interactions among endosymbiotic bacteria inside their eukaryotic hosts are poorly understood, particularly in mites. The mite Tyrophagus putrescentiae is a common, medically important generalist species that has many intracellular and gut bacterial symbionts. In the experiments, we examined bacterial abundances and composition in mite populations...
Article
Full-text available
Batesian mimics benefit from their phenotypic similarity to their models. An apparent paradox is the presence of many inaccurate mimics in nature. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain their existence, including the relaxed selection hypothesis, which postulates that the level of mimetic resemblance avoided by predators is context-dependent...
Article
Full-text available
House dust mites inhabit bed mattresses contaminating them with allergens. A strong temperature/moisture gradient exists in mattresses when it is used by humans daily. Here, we studied migration patterns of the mite Dermatophagoides farinae in continuous and time-discontinuous temperature gradients consisting of five sectors with 19–23, 23–28, 28–3...
Article
Spiders are among the most taxonomically diversified orders of predators, but data on the trophic niche of most species are still unknown. Here, we investigated the fundamental trophic niche of two species of jumping spiders, Cyrba algerina (Lucas, 1846) and Heliophanus termitophagus Wesołowska & Haddad, 2002, for which data on their realized troph...
Article
Full-text available
In the venom of spiders, linear peptides (LPs), also called cytolytical or antimicrobial peptides, represent a largely neglected group of mostly membrane active substances that contribute in some spider species considerably to the killing power of spider venom. By next-generation sequencing venom gland transcriptome analysis, we investigated 48 spi...
Article
Full-text available
Telomeres are protective structures at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, and disruption of their nucleoprotein composition usually results in genome instability and cell death. Telomeric DNA sequences have generally been found to be exceptionally conserved in evolution, and the most common pattern of telomeric sequences across eukaryotes is (TxAy...
Article
Full-text available
Venom research is a highly multidisciplinary field that involves multiple subfields of biology, informatics, pharmacology, medicine, and other areas. These different research facets are often technologically challenging and pursued by different teams lacking connection with each other. This lack of coordination hampers the full development of venom...
Article
Full-text available
Trophic interactions of cave arthropods have been understudied. We used molecular methods (NGS) to decipher the food web in the subterranean ecosystem of the Ardovská Cave (Western Carpathians, Slovakia). We collected five arthropod predators of the species Parasitus loricatus (gamasid mites), Eukoenenia spelaea (palpigrades), Quedius mesomelinus (...
Article
In culture, the house dust mite, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, shows different growth patterns, but the composition and changes in the associated microbial community during mite culture growth are poorly known. In this study, we analyzed temporal changes in microbial communities including ‘internal’ communities (inside mites, ingested) and ‘envir...
Article
There is a growing evidence that consistent interindividual differences in behavior, that is, behavioral types, can play an important role in key ecological processes such as predator–prey interactions, which in turn can have direct implications on biological control. Behavioral types of generalist predators may affect these interactions through in...
Article
In Central Europe, barnyardgrass [Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv.], has been originally common in humid lowland areas. As a result of the introduction of new crops and farming practices, in the northwest Carpathians, E. crus-galli has spread from lowland (< 200 m altitude) to highland (> 400 m altitude) areas. We collected seed samples from l...
Article
Full-text available
BACKGROUND Modern pest control management systems are based on the support of naturally occurring arthropod predators, as it has been shown that such predators offer an important ecosystem service. However, most naturally occurring arthropod predators are generalists (euryphagous). Their role in the biological control of specific pests has been rec...
Article
Insecticide formulations can cause mortality in natural enemies or have sublethal effects on them, which include alterations in their behaviour and development. Here, we investigated the effect of a bioinsecticide (azadirachtin) and predator cues on mating in a biocontrol spider, Philodromus cespitum. Firstly, adult males were exposed to cues from...
Article
The spiders of the genus Dysdera are renowned for including woodlouse specialists. In the Canary Islands, Dysdera underwent remarkable local diversification, and 48 endemic species have been reported to date. We aim to disentangle the evolutionary history underpinning this diversity, with particular emphasis on the evolution of the trophic ecology....
Book
Full-text available
Kniha je zaměřena na regresní modely, konkrétně jednorozměrné zobecněné lineární modely (GLM). Je určena především studentům a kolegům z biologických oborů a vyžaduje pouze základní statistické vzdělání, jakým je např. jednosemestrový kurz biostatistiky. Text knihy obsahuje nezbytné minimum statistické teorie, především však řešení 18 reálných přík...
Article
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Pyralid moths, Ephestia kuehniella and Plodia interpunctella, are prevalent stored product pests. The insecticides are the main tool to control these months in the stores. The data describing the response of these moths to insecticides are scare. The lethal effect of the organophosphate, pyrethroid, and halogenated‐pyrrole on moths larvae were comp...
Article
The importance of vision-reliant defensive traits (e.g. warning colours) in mimicry studies is well established, but their effectiveness is limited by visibility. In low light conditions, for instance, acoustic or tactile channels may be more effective. The juvenile and adult stages of the nocturnal hunting Palpimanus spiders audibly stridulate whe...
Article
Genomic data provide unprecedented power for species delimitation. However, current implementations are still time and resource consuming. In addition, bioinformatic processing is contentious and its impact on downstream analyses is insufficiently understood. Here we employ ddRAD sequencing and a thorough sampling for species delimitation in Zodari...
Article
Full-text available
A main goal of ecological and evolutionary biology is understanding and predicting interactions between populations and both abiotic and biotic environments, the spatial and temporal variation of these interactions, and the effects on population dynamics and performance. Trait-based approaches can help to model these interactions and generate a com...
Article
Males typically court females extensively to convince them to mate. In some species, however, males coerce females to mate. We studied mating behaviour in the spider Thanatus fabricii and focused on behavioural and venomic adaptations. We found that males always bit and bound females before and during mating. The bitten females quickly fell into a...
Article
Full-text available
The evolutionary history of prey specialisation differs among spider species, particularly among active wandering species which have evolved a variety of prey-capture tactics. Here, we conducted a comparative analysis of prey specialisation and prey capture behaviour in Gnaphosidae. We used nine species each representing a different genus and inves...
Article
• Competition among closely‐related specialist predators has rarely been studied, and thus the mechanism of their coexistence remains enigmatic. Interspecific competition among specialised co‐occurring predators capturing termites should be high. • Here we investigated various niche dimensions, namely temporal, spatial and trophic, of a couple of j...
Article
1. Understanding the conditions that allow for the occurrence of an additional generation in populations that are usually univoltine is important under the present climate warming. In temperate areas, a second generation is enabled through the emergence of a time window that opens when first‐generation individuals are ready to reproduce and closes...
Article
Full-text available
Among spiders, taxonomically the most diversified group of terrestrial predators, only a few species are stenophagous and feed on ants. The levels of stenophagy and ant-specialisation vary among such species. To investigate whether stenophagy is only a result of a local specialisation both fundamental and realised trophic niches need to be estimate...
Article
The population density of Eucallipterus tiliae (L.) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) required for initiating oviposition in Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) was established in Tilia cordata Mill. (Dicotyledoneae: Tiliaceae) stands sampled weekly throughout the vegetative seasons of 2017–2019. The number of aphids per leaf area and ovipo...
Article
Full-text available
In visual Batesian mimicry, the mimic acquires protection from predators by imitating visual signals of the model. It has not been known whether the occurrence of mimics among models is a result of selection by predators or an active choice by the mimics. Here, the occurrence of an ant-like spider, Micaria sociabilis Kulczyński, 1897, which occurs...
Article
Species that are Batesian mimics during postembryonic development shift between mimetic models as they grow in size. However, it has not yet been tested whether these successive mimetic phenotypes are similarly protected from predators. Early-instar phenotypes could represent an inaccurate phenotype or an accurate phenotype because of selection fro...