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Predator–Prey Interactions Between Aggressive-Mimic Jumping Spiders (Salticidae) and Araneophagic Spitting Spiders (Scytodidae) from the Philippines

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Abstract

In Los Baños in the Philippines (Laguna, Luzon), Scytodes sp. indet. is a web-building spitting spider (Scytodidae) that preys primarily on jumping spiders (Salticidae) and Portia labiata is an aggressive-mimic jumping spider that preys especially frequently on Scytodes. Tactics by which three species of Portia (P. africana, P. fimbriata, and P. labiata) and, for Portia labiata, three disjunct populations (Sri Lanka and, in the Philippines, Sagada and Los Baños) capture this especially dangerous prey are compared. Local adaptation to Scytodes by the Los Baños P. labiata is discussed. The Los Baños P. labiata uniquely made consistent use of tactics (soft plucking with palps and signal–detour–leap sequences) that were apparently responsible for greater prey-capture success and more effective avoidance of being spat on. Inter- and intraspecific differences were evident despite having used Portia that were reared in the laboratory with no prioir experience with scytodids.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Robert R. Jackson, Daiqin Li & Natasha Fijn

  2. School of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore

    Daiqin Li

  3. Entomology and Plant Pathology Division, International Rice Research Institute, P.O. Box 933, 1099, Manila, Philippines

    Alberto Barrion

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  1. Robert R. Jackson
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  2. Daiqin Li
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  3. Natasha Fijn
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  4. Alberto Barrion
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Jackson, R.R., Li, D., Fijn, N. et al. Predator–Prey Interactions Between Aggressive-Mimic Jumping Spiders (Salticidae) and Araneophagic Spitting Spiders (Scytodidae) from the Philippines. Journal of Insect Behavior 11, 319–342 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020946529246

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