Nectivory was studied in 90 species from the spider family Salticidae. Observations of 31 of these species feeding on nectar from¯owers in nature was the impetus for laboratory tests in which all 90 species fed from¯owers. That sugar, not just water, is relevant to salticids was implied by choice tests where salticids spent more time drinking from a simulated nectar source (30% sucrose solution) than from distilled water. Our ®ndings suggest that nectar feeding may be widespread, if not routine, in salticid spiders.

Inexperienced Phidippus regius spiderlings used significantly different techniques to capture larvae of a lepidopteran (Trichoplusia ni) and adult dipterans (Drosophila melanogaster). The predatory behaviours of P. regius spiderlings and adults were similar, indicating that the conditional predatory strategy is pre-programmed in this species (i.e. different responses to different prey do not depend on prior experience with those prey). Motility, shape, size, and presence versus absence of wings, all appear to be cues used by the spiderlings to evaluate prey type. The spiderlings' success at capturing prey improved rapidly over time. Experimental results suggest that this improvement depends mainly on effects of experience, but also partly on maturation. Also, spiderlings apparently learn to avoid ants. Tests with spiderlings that had only recently emerged from an eggsac indicated that for c. 3 days after emergence, spiderlings give priority to dispersal behaviour over predatory behaviour.

Using a tropical fauna from the Philippines as a case study, ant-salticid predator-prey relationships were investigated. In the field, 41 observations of ant predation on salticids were made, and the actual attack on the salticid was seen in four. In the laboratory, five of the ant genera observed in the field were tested with four categories of salticids: (1) four myrmecophagic (i.e., ant-eating) species, (2) six myrmecomorphic (i.e., ant-like) species, (3) an ant-associate species (i.e., a species that is neither myrmecophagic nor myrmecomorphic, but known to associate with ants), and (4) 14 ordinary species (i.e., species that are neither ant-eating nor ant-like, and are not known to associate with ants). In these tests the highest survival rates were observed in the myrmecophagic salticids, followed by the myrmecomorphic salticids, the ant-associate species, and finally the ordinary species.

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Prey‐capture behaviour of seven species of Phidippus is studied using two types of prey, house flies (adult Musca domestica) and caterpillars (cabbage loopers, larval Trichoplusia ni). Each species is shown to be a versatile predator which uses a different prey‐specific prey‐capture behaviour depending on whether prey is a fly or a caterpillar: spiders approached the two types of prey differently and leapt on them from different distances. Interspecific differences among Phidippus species are not pronounced, cxcept for variation in the distance from which spiders jumped and the spider's success at capturing a fly on the first try.