Robert R. Jackson's research while affiliated with University of Canterbury and other places
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Publications (204)
Specialist predators are innately and distinctively proficient at targeting specific prey types. This is enabled by behavioural, perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that can only be understood using carefully designed experiments. Evarcha culicivora is an East African jumping spider that feeds on vertebrate blood acquired indirectly by actively tar...
Previous research on Cyrba algerina (Araneae, Salticidae) has shown this jumping spider expresses predatory specialisation with respect to spiders as prey as well as inter-population variation in responsiveness to prey-spider odour. However, this earlier research pertained to a single prey species (Oecobius machadoi) and only field-collected C. alg...
Animals with small nervous systems may be prone to limitations in processing ability when confronted with a diversity of stimuli, especially if these involve multiple sensory modalities. We investigated the effect of the odour of the plant Lantana camara and its dominant volatile compound, β-caryophyllene, on the prey choice decisions of Evarcha cu...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are diurnal visual predators known for elaborate, vision-mediated behaviour achieved through the coordinated work of four pairs of camera-type eyes. One pair (‘principal’ eyes) is responsible for colour and high spatial acuity vision, while three pairs (‘secondary’ eyes) are mostly responsible for motion detection. Base...
The article Widespread army ant aversion among East African jumping spiders (Salticidae)
A capacity to execute long detours that are planned ahead of time has cognitive implications pertaining to reliance on internal representation. Here we investigate the detouring behaviour of Evarcha culicivora, an East African salticid spider that specializes at preying on blood-carrying mosquitoes. The findings from our experiments are the first e...
Macphail’s “null hypothesis,” that there are no differences in intelligence, qualitative, or quantitative, between non-human vertebrates has been controversial. This controversy can be useful if it encourages interest in acquiring a detailed understanding of how non-human animals express flexible problem-solving capacity (“intelligence”), but limit...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) typically prey on a variety of arthropods of similar size to themselves, but rarely on ants. Using 28 salticid species from East Africa, we first investigated vision-based aversion to ants by recording latency to enter a transparent sealed chamber flanked by chambers containing living army ants (Dorylus sp.) or tsetse f...
Males of Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider (Salticidae), have bright red faces. Here, we investigated how seeing a red face might influence a male’s behaviour during encounters with another male. We applied black eyeliner to conceal the red on a male’s face and measured the spectral properties of male faces with and without the eye...
Proficiency at planning is known to be part of the exceptionally complex predatory repertoire of Portia, a genus of jumping spiders (Salticidae) that specialize in preying on other spiders. This includes proficiency at choosing between two detour routes, with only one leading to otherwise inaccessible prey. Less is known about Portia's proficiency...
Jumping spiders (family Salticidae) are known for their intricate visionbased
behavior during encounters with prey and conspecific
individuals. This is achieved using eyes specialized for discerning
fine detail, but there has been minimal research on the capacity that
salticids might have for visual performance under low ambient light
levels. Here,...
One way of circumventing the functional tradeoffs on eye design [1,2] is to have different eyes for different tasks. For example, jumping spiders (Salticidae), known for elaborate, visually guided courtship and predatory behavior [3], view the same object simultaneously with two of their four pairs of eyes: the antero-lateral eyes (ALEs) and the pr...
Some jumping spiders (family Salticidae) bear a striking resemblance to ants, a dangerous type of prey, both in terms of their appearance and in terms of how they move. Recent research has taken important steps toward determining whether predators categorize these spiders as ants on the basis of the way they move.
Evarcha culicivora, a salticid spider from East Africa, is a mosquito specialist which feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by actively choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as preferred prey and by actively choosing Anopheles as preferred mosquitoes. Here we investigate for the first time whether specialization by this predator is also expressed in t...
Our objective was to use expectancy-violation methods for determining whether Portia africana, a salticid spider that specializes in eating other spiders, is proficient at representing exact numbers of prey. In our experiments, we relied on this predator’s known capacity to gain access to prey by following pre-planned detours. After Portia first vi...
Evarcha culicivora, an East African salticid spider, is a mosquito specialist and it is also a plant specialist, with juveniles visiting plants primarily for acquiring nectar meals and adults visiting plants primarily as mating sites. The hypothesis we consider here is that there are ontogenetic shifts in cognition-related responses by E. culicivor...
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 prefer...
Many spiders from the salticid subfamily Spartaeinae specialize at preying on other spiders and they adopt complex strategies when targeting these dangerous prey. We tested 15 of these spider-eating spartaeine species for the capacity to plan detours ahead of time. Each trial began with the test subject on top of a tower from which it could view tw...
Many spiders eat mosquitoes, but a spider is not automatically a mosquito specialist if it eats mosquitoes, or even if it primarily eats mosquitoes. Instead, specialization pertains to predators being adaptively fine tuned to specific types of prey. It is important to keep this basic meaning of specialization conceptually distinct from diet breadth...
Supplementary Data File This file can be used as a Supplementary File or it can be loaded later into Dryad. I do not understand how Dryad works. If it is easier just to use this as Supplementary, then that is OK with me.
Using Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider (Salticidae), we investigate how nectar meals function in concert with predation specifically at the juvenile stage between emerging from the egg sac and the first encounter with prey. Using plants and using artificial nectar consisting of sugar alone or sugar plus amino acids, we show that t...
Intricate predatory strategies are widespread in the salticid subfamily Spartaeinae. The hypothesis we consider here is that the spartaeine species that are proficient at solving prey-capture problems are also proficient at solving novel problems. We used nine species from this subfamily in our experiments. Eight of these species (two Brettus, one...
Paracyrba
wanlessi is a southeast Asian jumping spider (Salticidae) that lives in the hollow internodes of fallen bamboo and preys on the larvae, pupae and adults of mosquitoes. In contrast to Evarcha
culicivora, an East African salticid that is also known for actively targeting mosquitoes as preferred prey, there was no evidence of P. wanlessi cho...
One of the predictions from evolutionary game theory is that individuals will increase their willingness (i.e. become primed) to escalate aggression when they detect the presence of a limiting resource. Here, we test this prediction in the context of prey odour priming escalation decisions during vision-based encounters by Evarcha culicivora. This...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are known for their complex eyes and exceptional spatial vision, but less is known about the role of chemoreception in salticid behavior. Here we investigate whether olfactory pheromones (i.e., airborne chemical signals) from conspecific spiders and their draglines elicit the display behavior typically performed during...
Using expectancy-violation methods, we investigated the role of working memory in the predatory strategy of Portia africana, a salticid spider from Kenya that preys by preference on other spiders. One of this predator's tactics is to launch opportunistic leaping attacks on to other spiders in their webs. Focussing on this particular tactic, our exp...
The jumping spider Evarcha culicivora (Salticidae) has unusual links to Lantana camara, a plant species to which it is attracted. Three phytochemicals from the headspace of L. camara (1,8 cineole and especially β-caryophyllene and α-humulene) attract adult E. culicivora. These spiders, especially early-instar juveniles, feed on nectar, but adults m...
We use the term 'aggressive mimic' for predators that communicate with their prey by making signals to indirectly manipulate prey behaviour. For understanding why the aggressive mimic's signals work, it is important to appreciate that these signals interface with the prey's perceptual system, and that the aggressive mimic can be envisaged as playin...
Aelurillus aeruginosus, A. cognatus, and A. kochi feed on ants in nature. Prey-capture techniques and prey preferences of each of these three species from Israel were studied in the laboratory using a wide range of ants and other insects. Each usually attacked ants head on, but there was no regular orientation of attacks on other insects. When atta...
Having unique, complex eyes and vision based on exceptional spatial acuity, salticid spiders are known for their vision-based predatory and mating strategies. Yet Evarcha culicivora, the salticid we consider here, is known for predatory and mating strategies based strongly on the interplay of vision and olfaction. This unusual East African species...
Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider, is known for feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood by actively choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as prey. Using cold-anthrone tests to detect fructose, we demonstrate that E. culicivora also feeds on nectar. Field-collected individuals, found on the plant Lantana camara, tested positive for plan...
Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider, is known for feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood by actively choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as prey. Using cold-anthrone tests to detect fructose, we demonstrate that E. culicivora also feeds on nectar. Field-collected individuals, found on the plant Lantana camara, tested positive for plan...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are renowned for their exceptional vision, but this does not preclude use of other senses. Here we provide evidence that olfactory pheromones are widespread in the Spartaeinae and Lyssomaninae, two subfamilies regarded as basal clades within the Salticidae. Pheromone use by salticids was tested in a series of experiment...
Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider (Salticidae), is the only spider for which there is evidence of innate olfactory affinity for particular plant species. Evarcha culicivora also actively chooses as preferred prey the females of Anopheles mosquitoes, and both sexes of Anopheles are known to visit plants for nectar meals. Here, we id...
To understand communication, the interests of the sender and the receiver/s of signals should be considered separately. When our goal is to understand the adaptive significance of specific responses to specific signals by the receiver, questions about signal information are useful. However, when our goal is to understand the adaptive significance t...
Evarcha culicivora is an East African jumping spider that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-fed female Anopheles mosquitoes as prey. Previous studies have shown that this predator can identify its preferred prey even when restricted to using only visual cues. Here, we used lures and virtual mosquitoes to investigate the optical...
Although a wide range of vertebrates have been considered in research on numerical competence, little is known about the role of number-related decisions in the predatory strategies of invertebrates. Here, we investigate how numerical competence is expressed in a highly specialized predatory strategy adopted by the small juveniles of Portia
african...
Evarcha culicivora Wesolowska & Jackson 2003 is a jumping spider (Aranea: Salticidae) that has the distinction of being the only predator known to express an active preference for the vectors of human malaria (i.e., the mosquito genus Anopheles) and to feed indirectly on blood by choosing blood-carrying female mosquitoes as prey. Here we examine th...
This chapter examines how the jumping spider's eight eyes are structured, how they function, and how they might have evolved. It also reviews the intricate vision-based predatory strategies for which jumping spiders are justly renowned. The last part of the chapter combines what is known about variation in salticid eye design and behavior with what...
Communal predators may often need to make especially intricate foraging decisions, as a predator’s success may depend on the actions of its neighbours. Here, we consider the decisions made by Portia africana, a jumping spider (Salticidae) that preys on other spiders, including Oecobius amboseli (Oecobiidae), a small prey spider that lives under sma...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are known for having good eyesight, but the extent to which they rely on olfaction is poorly understood. Here we demonstrate for the first time that olfactory pheromones are used by two species from the salticid genus Cyrba (C. algerina and C. ocellata). Using a Y-shape olfactometer, we investigated the ability of adult...
Spiders, having minute brains, were once considered simple, instinct-driven automatons, but research on spider biology is revealing increasing evidence of their cognitive abilities. In this review, we discuss the complex, flexible behaviour of spiders, especially salticids, and highlight how sometimes the cognitive character of spider behaviour clo...
Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider (family Salticidae), was shown in an earlier study to have an affinity for the odor from two particular plant species, Lantana camara and Ricinus communis. The olfactometer used in the earlier study was designed for choice testing. Here we focus on L. camara and, by using a second olfactometer meth...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are known for having good eyesight, but the extent to which they also rely on olfaction is poorly understood. We report here new information on the olfactory abilities of the salticid genus Portia. We investigated for the first time the ability of adult males and females of four Portia species (P. africana, P. schultzi,...
Predatory arthropods that specialize in invading webs and preying on the resident spiders ('araneophagic predators') face special challenges. As webs are exceedingly good at transmitting vibrations, it is difficult for a web invader to move through the web and remain undetected by the spider. An araneophagic predator that generates vibrations in th...
We designed an optical system for tracking the retinal movement of a jumping spider as a stimulus is presented to it. The system, using all off-the-shelf optical components except for one custom aspheric plate, consists of three sub-systems that share a common path: a visible stimuli presentation sub-system, a NIR illumination sub-system, and a NIR...
All species from the jumping spider (Salticidae) genus Portia appear to be predators that specialize at preying on other spiders by invading webs and, through aggressive mimicry, gaining
dynamic fine control over the resident spider’s behavior. From previous research, there is evidence that P. fimbriata, P. labiata and P. schultzi derive signals by...
An important prediction from game theory is that the value of a resource will influence the level to which an animal is willing
to escalate during conflict with conspecific rivals. Here we use this prediction as the rationale for experiments aimed at
determining whether escalation decisions made by predators are influenced by the presence of prefer...
According to the ‘Jack-of-all-trades hypothesis’, a specialist predator that uses relatively few discrete predatory behaviours is expected to be highly effective on the few types of prey on which it specializes. A versatile predator, that specializes on these plus additional prey, is expected to be less effective than the specialist predator on the...
The influence of diet on survival rate and growth was investigated in Portia fimbriata, an araneophagic salticid spider in Queensland. Portia fimbriata spiderlings were reared on one of three different diets: spiders only, insects only, and a mixture of spiders and insects. For each diet, various spider and insect species were used, and the spider...
Stegodyphus sarasinorum Karsch is a Sri Lankan social spider that exhibits communal predation and feeding. A spider's feeding time is dependent on its position in the feeding sequence, with early feeders feeding longer than those arriving later. Feeding time per spider does not decrease with increasing group size when compared with a given feeding...
Portia is a genus of web-invading araneophagic spiders that use aggressive mimicry to capture their spider prey. In an experimental study, we demonstrate that adult females of Portia africana, P. fimbriata, P. labiata, and P. schultzi produce olfactory cues that affect the behavior of conspecific adult males, adult females, and juveniles. The olfac...
Evarcha culicivora is an unusual salticid spider because it feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as preferred prey. Its preferred mosquitoes are Anopheles, the genus to which all human malaria vectors belong. Here, we show that human odour, which is known to be salient to malaria vectors, is also salient to the...
Although many spiders build prey-capture webs, spider foraging strategies include species that, instead of building webs, deploy silk in other ways for prey capture. Additionally, there are species that capture prey, either by ambush or by active pursuit, without making notable use of silk in the process. There are striking examples of predatory sp...
Belonging to a size category that makes them vulnerable to a wide variety of predators, spiders have evolved a bewildering array of anti-predator adaptations, which can be clustered under two broad categories, primary and secondary defence. Primary defences are ploys by which the spider avoids provoking pursuit by, and interaction with, the predato...
Geographic variation in a predator’s reliance on kairomones from prey was investigated. The predator studied, Cyrba
algerina, is an araneophagic (spider-eating) jumping spider (Salticidae) and the prey were oecobiid spiders (Oecobiidae). There were two study sites (Sintra and Tavira), both in Portugal. Oecobius
machadoi was a common oecobiid in Sin...
By choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as prey, Evarcha culicivora, an East African salticid spider, specializes at feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood. It also has an exceptionally complex mate-choice system. An earlier study revealed that search-image use assists E. culicivora in finding prey and mates when restricted to using vision alone. Her...
The prey choice behavior and predatory strategies of two East African assassin bugs, Scipinnia repax (Stäl 1961) and Nagusta sp. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), were investigated in the field and the laboratory. Both of these species are from the subfamily Harpactorinae and specialize in eating spiders. They prey especially often on social jumping spiders...
Evarcha culicivora, a jumping spider from East Africa, feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-carrying female mosquitoes as prey. It also has an unusually complex mate-choice system. Here, we show that both sexes of E. culicivora can use mate-finding search images and also use prey-finding search images. In experiments, individuals...
Evarcha culicivora (Araneae, Salticidae) feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing, as preferred prey, bloodcarrying female mosquitoes. Mutual mate-choice behavior is also pronounced in this species. Here we show that, when E. culicivora feeds indirectly on blood, it acquires a diet-related odor that makes it more attractive to the opposite...
The biology of an aberrant saltioid spider, Euryattus Thorell sp. indet., is described from observations in a Queensland rain forest and the laboratory. Pronounced morphological and behavioural changes occur during post-embryological development. Juveniles spin webs, but adult females make ‘suspension nests’ by suspending a curled-up leaf by heavy...
Previous descriptions of the courtship of Dysdera crocata, a cosmopolitan short-sighted hunting spider, as “swift and unelaborate” are inappropriate. Male-female interactions were observed usually to last in the laboratory (n= 119) for several minutes (median 3–13 min; maximum 135 min). Previous to mating about a dozen distinct elements of behaviou...
Portia fimbriata (Doleschall) is an unusual salticid because it spins webs and uses its own webs and those of other species in predation. However, the courtship and threat displays of this species are more like those of typical, cursorial salticids than like typical web-building spiders. During male-female interactions, males perform leg-waving and...
Batesian and aggressive mimicry are united by deceit: Batesian mimics deceive predators and aggressive mimics deceive prey. This distinction is blurred by Myrmarachne melanotarsa, an ant-like jumping spider (Salticidae). Besides often preying on salticids, ants are well defended against most salticids that might target them as potential prey. Earli...
![Figure][1]
Weasels may be cunning, we might admire the intelligence of dogs and cats, but we can be forgiven for expecting the jumping spider, a diminutive predator with a brain not much bigger than a poppy seed, to be one of Descartes' automatons. Yet, jumping spiders, also known as
Many predators are averse to attacking ants and many palatable arthropods are Batesian mimics of ants. We considered whether aggregating Batesian mimics of ants can become more repelling to ant-averse predators by, as a group, resembling groups of ants (collective mimicry). Myrmarachne melanotarsa is a gregarious ant-like jumping spider (Salticidae...
Phintella piatensis is an unusual jumping spider because, despite being neither myrmecophagic nor myrmecomorphic, it associates with ants, including dangerous weaver ants. Although salticids typically spin cocoon-like nests for use as shelters, the nests of Phintella are unusually dense. These play an important role in how Phintella adapts to livin...
Evarcha culicivora, a jumping spider from East Africa, specialises in feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as preferred prey. Previous studies have shown that this predator can identify its preferred prey by sight alone and also by odour alone. Here we investigate how vision and olfaction work together. Our f...
Evarcha culicivora Wesolowska & Jackson, a salticid from the Lake Victoria region of East Africa, is known to associate with Lantana camara L. (family Verbenaceae) and Ricinus communis L. (family Euphorbiaceae), two plant species that are common in the same habitat. E. culicivora is an unusual salticid because, by choosing blood‐carrying mosquitoes...
Evarcha culicivora is an unusual salticid spider because each sex actively courts the other and both sexes make distinctive mate-choice decisions. Here we use olfactometer experiments for investigating the ability of each sex to identify potential mates on the basis of odour alone. Test spiders spent more time in the vicinity of opposite-sex conspe...
Females of Euryattus sp. indet, a salticid from Queensland, suspend rolled-up leaves for nests. Euryattus males respond to conspecific females in nests with vibratory courtship. Portia fimbriata, a sympatric salticid that preys on Euryattus, responds to Euryattus females' nests by mimicking the courtship of Euryattus males. In the laboratory, cues...
Portia fimbriata, a web-invading, araneophagic salticid that uses aggressive mimicry to deceive its prey (web-building spiders), takes indirect routes to reach its prey (i.e. it makes detours). Data are presented from 18 instances of Portia making detours to reach prey in nature, the prey being five different species of web-building spiders. Portia...
Portia is a genus of specialized web-invading salticids that use aggressive mimicry. Some other salticids leap into webs to catch spiders but do not use aggressive mimicry. Pholcus phalangioides is a web-building spider with a special defensive behaviour—called whirling—in which it swings its body around in a circle while keeping its long legs on t...
Portia is a web-invading araneophagic spider that uses aggressive mimicry to deceive its prey. The present paper is a first step toward clarifying experimentally the cues that govern Portia's decisions of whether to enter a web, whether to make signals once in a web, and whether to persist at signalling once started. The following conclusions are s...
Psilochorus sphaeroides from Queensland, Australia and Smeringopus pallidus from Sri Lanka are long-legged, web-building pholcid spiders with a special defence behaviour, whirling. The efficiency of whirling as a defence against web-invading jumping spiders (Salticidae) was examined in the laboratory. Three salticid species were used in these tests...
A range of web-invading jumping spiders with different predatory strategies was tested with A. appensa in the laboratory: Mimetus maculosus (Mimetidae), Pholcus phalangioides (Pholcidae), Taieria erebus (Gnaphosidae), and 11 species of salticids. Spiders that are known to specialize at web-invading, either by leaping into webs or by walking slowly...
Three species of web-invading salticid spiders, with different predatory strategies, were tested with Holocnemus pluchei in the laboratory: Portia fimbriata and Portia labiata, which practise aggressive mimicry, and Euyattus sp., which leaps from outside on to spiders in webs but does not practise aggressive mimicry. Portia was shown to be more eff...
An important prediction from game theory is that the value of a resource influences the level to which conflict escalates. Here we use jumping spiders (Salticidae) to consider this prediction in the context of species adopting different mating systems (‘female mate-choice’ and ‘mutual mate-choice’). Our experiments are designed for determining whet...
The ability of Habrocestum pulex, a myrmecophagic jumping spider, to detect olfactory and contact chemical cues from ants was investigated experimentally. When given a choice between walking over clean soil or soil that had housed ants, H. pulex spent significantly more time on ant-treated soil. However, H. pulex did not appear to discriminate betw...
Ants prey on salticids, and encounters with weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius 1775)) appear to be especially dangerous for many salticids. In the Philippines, Myrmarachne assimilis Banks 1930 is a salticid that mimics Oecophylla smaragdina. We tested for the abilities of four categories of salticids, plus M. assimilis, to survive in the...
Instances are documented of salticids robbing ants by adopting a specialized behavior pattern, "snatching." The salticid positioned itself beside an ant column on the wall of a building, repeatedly fixating its gaze on different individual ants in the column and maintaining fixation on the ant by turning its body while the ant walked by. When close...
Instances are documented of finding individuals of Portia africana in the field living aggregated in the webs of other spiders, in the nest complexes of other salticids, around solitary nests of other salticids, and around the nests of oecobiid spiders. Aggregation members included all active juvenile stages of P. africana, as well as adult males a...
2 international centre of insect Physiology and ecology (iciPe) Thomas odhiambo campus Po Box 30 mbita Point, kenya 3 centre for the integrative Study Abstract Myrmarachne melanotarsa, an ant-like jumping spider (Salticidae) from east africa, is an accurate mimic of Crematogaster sp. and associates unusually closely with its models. M. melanotarsa...
Myrmarachne assimilis, an ant-like jumping spider (Araneae, Salticidae) from the Philippines and a Batesian mimic of Oecophylla smaragdina, the Asian weaver ant, aggregates on leaves in the company of its model. All stages in this species' lifecycle are sometimes found in nest complexes (nests connected to each other by silk). Although aggregating...
The predatory behaviour of 31 species of Myrmarachne, ant-like salticids, was studied in the laboratory and the field. The ant-like morphology and locomotion of these spiders appears to function primarily in Batesian mimicry. No evidence was found of Myrmarachne feeding on ants. However, predatory sequences were found to differ considerably from th...
Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider (Salticidae), is an unusual predator because it feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood‐carrying mosquitoes as preferred prey. It also associates with particular plant species, Lantana camara and Ricinus communis. Here we document this species’ exceptionally complex display repertoir...
Myrtnarachne is a genus of ant-like salticids. Eight species were observed feeding, in nature, in Australia, Kenya, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, on varied types of insects but not ants. The behaviour of M. lupata, from Australia, was studied in the laboratory. Predatory sequences were found to differ considerably from those of typical salticids. Attacki...
The distinctions between a predator's diet, its prey-choice behaviour and its preference are illustrated in a study of Aelurillus m-nigrum Kulczyn'ski, a salticid spider from Azerbaijan. The natural diet of A. m-nigrum was determined from records of individuals feeding in the field (N=58). Ten arthropod orders were represented. Nine were from the c...
There has been a considerable recent interest in the criteria by which animals choose mates and in the extent to which mating systems tend to be based on mutual mate choice. In this study, we consider Evarcha culicivora, a salticid spider from East Africa. This species has some unusual characteristics, including active display by females as well as...
An important prediction from game theory is that the value of a resource influences the level to which male-male conflict escalates. Earlier experimental studies have shown that the seven salticid species we study here (Bavia aericeps, Euryattus sp., Hypoblemum albovittatum, Jacksonoides queenslandicus, Marpissa marina, Portia africana and Simaetha...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are known for their elaborate vision-based display behaviour, and a
sizeable minority of the species in this large family resemble ants. The display repertoire of two antlike
salticid species from the Philippines is investigated. Myrmarachne assimilis is a specialist ant
mimic, closely matching the appearance of the wea...
A previous study showed for Anopheles gambiae s.s. a gradation of feeding preference on common plant species growing in a malaria holoendemic area in western Kenya. The present follow-up study determines whether there is a relationship between the mosquito's preferences and its survival and fecundity.
Groups of mosquitoes were separately given ad l...
An important prediction from game theory is that the value of a resource influences the level to which male-male conflict escalates. An earlier experimental study showed that males of Hypoblemum albovittatum, a common salticid in New Zealand, can discern by sight alone whether a female is in the vicinity and that, having detected a female's presenc...
We investigated how insects use wax as a defence against visual predators, using a New Zealand salticid species, Marpissa marina, as the predator and Eriosoma lanigerum, an aphid that covers itself with wax, as the prey. For live‐prey testing, the predator was presented with two aphids, one with its wax covering intact and one with its wax removed....
Anti‐predator crypsis were investigated experimentally in a study using grass moths (Lepidoptera: Crambidae; Orocrambus flexuosellus) as prey and jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae: Trite planiceps and Marpissa marina) as predators. Moths were presented to salticids on backgrounds that were, to human observers, either matching or contrasting. Whe...
Jumping spiders (Salticidae) usually avoid ants, but some species within this family single out ants as preferred prey, while others (especially the species in the genus Myrmarachne) are Batesian mimics of ants. Field records show that ant-eating salticids sometimes prey on Myrmarachne, suggesting that the unwanted attention of predators that speci...