Laboratory Observations on the Behavior of the Salticid Spider Phidippus audax (Hentz)

Foraging behaviour in the jumping spider Phidippus audax: bases for selectivity

“…However, the strength of the feeding stimulus associated with a crawling prey and its probability of eliciting pursuit, apparently does increase with increasing velocity and movement discontinuity. The discontinuous and jerky stimuli presented by many moving insects (Freed, 1982) may act as releasers of pursuit and attack behaviour in P. uudux (Hollis & Branson, 1964).…”

“…Salticids depend strongly on the visual cues of movement, size, and shape of potential prey to initiate orientation, pursuit, and capture offood (Dill, 1975;Drees, 1952;Edwards, 1980a, b;Gardner, 1964Gardner, , 1965Gardner, , 1966Hollis & Branson, 1964;Land, 1971). Non-visual cues such as vibratory, tactile, or chemical stimuli may also influence prey capture (Foelix, 1982).…”

“…Prey-specific attack behaviour Prey-specific attack behaviour has been observed for various web-building (Robinson, 1969;Harwood, 1974;Lubin, 1980;Olive, 1980;Jackson & Blest, 1982) and hunting spiders (Hollis & Branson, 1964;Gardner, 1965;Edwards, 1975Edwards, , 1980aRobinson & Valerio, 1977;Cutler, 1980;Jackson & Blest, 1982). The approach and attack of prey by Phidippus audax vary with insect species as well as with size and velocity of prey.…”