Zodarion spiders (Araneae: Zodariidae) do not grow well on any ant
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2005 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Programm, Abstracts, List of PArticipants |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Zoology |
| Keywords | araneae;zodarion;prey;diet |
| Description | Dietary specialisation is very rare in true predators. So far it has been proved experimentally only in two aphidophage species. We performed laboratory experiments in order to find out how strictly are ant-eating spiders specialised in their diet. A central European Zodarion germanicum was used in two types of experiments: 1. study on the effect of different diets on fitness related characteristics, and 2. study on certain aspects of predatory behaviour. Hatched spiders were reared for four months on four different diets: 1. monodiet of Formicinae (Lasius), 2. monodiet of Myrmicinae (Tetramorium), 3. mixed diet of Formicinae and Myrmicinae, and 4. monodiet of Drosophila flies. Survival, moulting and weight were observed regularly. In the other experiment, latency to the first attack, number of attacks and the paralysis latency were investigated using four ant species of two subfamilies. In the diet experiment, spiders suffered a high mortality and had very slow development on the fly diet despite the fact that flies were reared on an enriched medium. This showed that Z. germanicum is a strict ant-eater. It developed most quickly and had lowest mortality on pure Formicinae diet. Myrmicinae ants were of inferior quality and mixed diet was of intermediate quality. This shows that Z. germanicum is a Formicinae specialist. Predatory behaviour experiments gave similar results. Z. germanicum was most efficient in the paralysis of Formicinae ants. |
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