Summary
Feeding experiments and prey collections in Panama have shown the tropical spitting spider Scytodes longipes to be a specialized feeder on soft-chitinized arthropods (Diptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Orthopteroidea, and Araneae); hard-chitinized insects (Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and Heteroptera) are refused. There is a considerable specialisation on spiders as prey. The unique prey-catching behaviour in which a gummy secretion is spat onto prey items is considered as an important characteristic of this specialisation. Pholcus phalangioides, a pholcid with convergent morphology and a different specialised prey-catching behaviour, is discussed as an ecological equivalent to Scytodes longipes.
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Nentwig, W. Feeding ecology of the tropical spitting spider Scytodes longipes (Araneae, Scytodidae). Oecologia 65, 284–288 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379231