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Gut-content analysis in four species, combined with comparative analysis of trophic traits, suggests an araneophagous habit for the entire family Palpimanidae (Araneae)

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Abstract

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, Otiothops birabeni, Palpimanus gibbulus, and P. potteri) representing all three subfamilies (Chediminae, Otiothopinae, Palpimaninae) and three geographic areas (Mediterranean, South America, South Africa) in order to infer a trophic strategy for the entire family Palpimanidae. We predicted that all palpimanids are specialised araneophagous predators. We used molecular gut-content analysis, combined with comparative analysis of morphological trophic traits. We found all four species to catch spiders more than insects. All species captured spiders belonging to several families, but predominantly those of the cursorial guild. The diet composition did not differ between sexes and juveniles. The breadth of trophic niche was narrow for all species, suggesting stenophagy. Using comparative analysis of morphological traits (thick cuticle, stout forelegs, scopulae on forelegs, and stridulatory apparatus) and araneophagy, we estimated that preying on spiders combined with the morphological traits is ancestral state for the entire family. We suggest that the whole family Palpimanidae includes araneophagous species.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank S. Korenko, M. Forman, and P. Just for collecting spiders in Portugal or Italy, and R. Booysen, J. A. Neethling, E. Liznarová, and O. Michálek for assisting with field work in South Africa. Fieldwork at Ndumo Game Reserve and Bankfontein was carried out under Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife permit numbers OP 552/2015, OP 4072/2016, and OP 1869/2018, and permit numbers NC.614/2017 and 201911000003852 from the Free State Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, respectively. South African field work was funded through a Research Development Grant from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (#112127). We acknowledge the CF Genomics of CEITEC supported by the NCMG research infrastructure (LM2018132 funded by MEYS CR) for their support in obtaining the scientific data presented in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    Stano Pekár & Lenka Petráková Dušátková

  2. Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Táňa Macháčková & Ondřej Slabý

  3. Grupo Multidisciplinario en Ecología Para La Agricultura, Centro Universitario Regional Este, Universidad de La República, Ruta 8 Km 282, Treinta y Tres, Uruguay

    Luis F. García

  4. Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa

    Charles R. Haddad

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  1. Stano Pekár
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  2. Lenka Petráková Dušátková
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SP conceived and designed the study; CRH, SP, and LFG collected the spiders in the field; LP, TM, and OS did the gut content analysis; SP analysed the data; all authors drafted the manuscript and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Stano Pekár.

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Pekár, S., Dušátková, L.P., Macháčková, T. et al. Gut-content analysis in four species, combined with comparative analysis of trophic traits, suggests an araneophagous habit for the entire family Palpimanidae (Araneae). Org Divers Evol 22, 265–274 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-021-00525-9

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