Herbivory in a spider through exploitation of an ant–plant mutualism

Meehan, Christopher; Olson, E. J.; Reudink, Matthew W.; Kyser, T. Kurt; Curry, Robert L.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.049

Cited by 97 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Spiders, however, are typically characterized as being obligate predators. The most striking known exception is Bagheera kiplingi [5], a Central American jumping spider (Salticidae), which is almost entirely herbivorous despite cohabiting with edible ant species (Pseudomyrmex spp.). B. kiplingi feeds primarily on the Beltian bodies (specialized leaf tips) of the ant-acacia (Vachellia spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nectar Meals of a Mosquito-Specialist Spider

Kuja

Jackson

Sune

et al. 2012

Psyche: A Journal of Entomology

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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 that E. culicivora also feeds on nectar. Field-collected individuals, found on the plant Lantana camara, tested positive for plant sugar (fructose). In the laboratory, E. culicivora tested positive for fructose after being kept with L. camara or one of another ten plant species (Aloe vera, Clerodendron magnifica, Hamelia patens, Lantana montevideo, Leonotis nepetaefolia, Parthenium hysterophorus, Ricinus communis, Senna didymobotrya, Striga asiatica, and Verbena trivernia). Our findings demonstrate that E. culicivora acquires fructose from its natural diet and can ingest fructose directly from plant nectaries. However, experiments in the laboratory also show that E. culicivora can 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 adult E. 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 of E. culicivora.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nectar Meals of a Mosquito-Specialist Spider

Kuja

Jackson

Sune

et al. 2012

Psyche: A Journal of Entomology

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“…Nevertheless, several animal clades with long histories lack herbivorous representatives (table 1). An apparent exception within one of these clades (Araneae) occurs in a small clade of jumping spiders in Costa Rica feeding on the ant-associated Beltian bodies of acacia trees [115]. However, it is unclear whether the plant fluids constitute an important part of the spiders' diet.…”

Section: Herbivorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Forbidden phenotypes and the limits of evolution

Vermeij¹

2015

Interface Focus.

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Evolution has produced an astonishing array of organisms, but does it have limits and, if so, how are these overcome and how have they changed over the course of time? Here, I review models for describing and explaining existing diversity, and then explore parts of the evolutionary tree that remain empty. In an analysis of 32 forbidden states among eukaryotes, identified in major clades and in the three great habitat realms of water, land and air, I argue that no phenotypic constraint is absolute, that most constraints reflect a limited time–energy budget available to individual organisms, that natural selection is ultimately responsible for both imposing and overcoming constraints, including those normally ascribed to developmental patterns of construction and phylogenetic conservatism, and that increases in adaptive versatility in major clades together with accompanying new ecological opportunities have eliminated many constraints. Phenotypes that were inaccessible during the Early Palaeozoic era have evolved during later periods while very few adaptive states have disappeared. The filling of phenotypic space has proceeded cumulatively in three overlapping phases characterized by diversification at the biochemical, morphological and cultural levels.

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“…They hunt and defend themselves by secreting a variety of defensive compounds including quinones, ketones, and phenols from their exocrine glands largest and heaviest occurring among tarantulas (Theraphosidae) with body lengths of up to nine centimeters and leg spans of up to twenty-five centimeters [68]. Notwithstanding, with the exception of the herbivorous Central American jumping spider Bagheera kiplingi Peckham & Peckham, 1896 (Salticidae) [69], all species are predators, mostly hunting on insects and other spiders, but a few large species also consume small birds and lizards [66]. For this purpose, many produce poisons to immobilize their prey, perhaps the most famous one being the female black widows in the genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805 (Theridiidae) [70].…”

Section: Cheliceratamentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the global animal biodiversity in the search for new drugs – Spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, centipedes, and millipedes

Mans¹

2017

J Transl Sci

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Drug discovery and development programs have historically mainly focused on plants with medicinal properties and the extensive knowledge of traditional healers about these plants. More recently, the vast array of marine invertebrates and insects throughout the world have been recognized as additional sources for identifying unusual lead compounds to obtain structurally novel and mechanistically unique therapeutics. The results from these efforts are encouraging and have yielded a number of clinically useful drugs. However, many arthropods other than insects -such as spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, centipedes, and millipedes -also produce hundreds of bioactive substances in their venom that may become useful in the clinic. Many of these chemicals are defensive and predatory weapons of these creatures and have been refined during millions of years of evolution to rapidly and with high specificity and high affinity shut down critical molecular targets in prey and predators. Exploration of these compounds may lead to the development of, among others, novel drugs for treating diseases caused by abnormalities in humans in the same (evolutionary conserved) molecular targets such as erectyle dysfunction, botulism, and autoimmune disorders, as well as the identification of novel antineoplastic, antimicrobial, and antiparasitic compounds. This paper addresses the importance of bioactive compounds from spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, centipedes, and millipedes to these advances.

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Herbivory in a spider through exploitation of an ant–plant mutualism

Cited by 97 publications

References 10 publications

Nectar Meals of a Mosquito-Specialist Spider

Nectar Meals of a Mosquito-Specialist Spider

Forbidden phenotypes and the limits of evolution

Exploring the global animal biodiversity in the search for new drugs – Spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, centipedes, and millipedes

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