The influence of predator type on ‘whirling’ defensive behavior of Pholcus ancoralis (Araneae, Pholcidae), a tropical web-building spider
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Animal Behavior, Ecology, Entomology
- Keywords
- Pholcidae, predation, defensive behavior, whirling, tropical spiders
- Copyright
- © 2016 Striegel
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. The influence of predator type on ‘whirling’ defensive behavior of Pholcus ancoralis (Araneae, Pholcidae), a tropical web-building spider. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2666v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2666v1
Abstract
Background. The ‘whirling’ defensive behavior of Pholcus ancoralis (L. Koch, 1865) was studied in a forest and laboratory in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. This behavior involves fast web-borne gyration to dissuade predators and is widespread in the Pholcidae family.
Methods. Different local predators (Anterhyncium rufipes, Lipinia noctua, and Thorelliola ensifera) were placed in two-chambered systems with P. ancoralis individuals and qualitative data on whirling frequency and duration were obtained.
Results. Potter wasps (Anterhyncium rufipes) triggered whirling in 50% of trials and moth skinks (Lipinia noctua) triggered whirling in 20% of trials. The average durations of the behavior triggered by each were 853 and 455 seconds, respectively. Pacific horned jumping spiders (Thorelliola ensifera) triggered whirling in 10% of trials with an average duration of only 20 seconds.
Discussion. Wasps triggered whirling the most frequently and of a long average duration. This has not been seen in other studied pholcids. This difference in predator specificity of whirling may be due to differences in habitat between pholcid species.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.