Nectar Meals of a Mosquito-Specialist Spider
| Autor: | Rebecca N. H. Karanja, Godfrey O. Sune, Josiah O. Kuja, Zipporah O. Lagat, Georgina E. Carvell, Robert R. Jackson |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
biology Article Subject Lantana camara fungi Parthenium hysterophorus food and beverages Fructose biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences 010602 entomology chemistry.chemical_compound chemistry Evarcha culicivora Insect Science Hamelia patens Senna didymobotrya lcsh:Zoology Botany Nectar lcsh:QL1-991 Sugar Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
| Zdroj: | Psyche: A Journal of Entomology, Vol 2012 (2012) |
| ISSN: | 0033-2615 |
| DOI: | 10.1155/2012/898721 |
| Popis: | 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 thatE. culicivoraalso feeds on nectar. Field-collected individuals, found on the plantLantana camara, tested positive for plant sugar (fructose). In the laboratory,E. culicivoratested positive for fructose after being kept withL. camaraor one of another ten plant species (Aloe vera, Clerodendron magnifica, Hamelia patens, Lantana montevideo, Leonotis nepetaefolia, Parthenium hysterophorus, Ricinus communis, Senna didymobotrya, Striga asiatica, andVerbena trivernia). Our findings demonstrate thatE. culicivoraacquires fructose from its natural diet and can ingest fructose directly from plant nectaries. However, experiments in the laboratory also show thatE. culicivoracan obtain fructose indirectly by feeding on prey that have fed on fructose, implying a need to consider this possibility when field-collected spiders test positive for fructose. In laboratory tests, 53.5% of 1,215 small juveniles, but only 3.4% of 622 adultE. culicivora, left with plants for 24 hours, were positive for fructose. These findings, along with the field data, suggest that fructose is especially important for early-instar juveniles ofE. culicivora. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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