Responses of an araneophagic assassin bug, <i>Stenolemus bituberus</i>, to spider draglines

Wignall, Anne E.; Taylor, Phillip W.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.2009.01088.x

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Stenolemus lanipes feeds on spiderlings of Achaearanea tepidariorum (Hodge (1984) and Stenolemus bituberus on Achaearanea sp. and Pholcus phalangioides (Wignall and Taylor 2009). Then, Snoddy et al (1976) similarly noted that S. lanipes did not feed on insects caught in the webs of A. tepidariorum (although young nymphs were observed feeding on psocids around the periphery of webs).…”

Section: Spider Feeders (Araneophagic)mentioning

confidence: 90%

Reduviids and Their Merits in Biological Control

Sahayaraj

2014

Basic and Applied Aspects of Biopesticides

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Reduviids are the largest group of pest-specific, efficient hemipteran predators of economically important insect pests worldwide. They are found in the agroecosystems, semi-arid zones, scrub jungles and tropical rain forests. Reduviid predators have been distributed in various crops like soybean, groundnut, pigeon pea, cotton, castor, rice, cabbage, tobacco, pumpkin, bhindi, citrus, sugar cane, sesbania and apple and in secondary and tropical evergreen forests in many parts of the world. In natural and plantation forests, reduviids are living at various heights on vegetation but also in bird nests, caves and spider webs. Their success in every ecosystem/ trophic niche is due to their morphological and physiological adaptations related to the predation. Reduviids are efficient predators on insect pests of crops, playing a significant role in keeping pest populations in check. Some important biological control agents are Platymeris laevicollis Distant, Zelus renardii Kolenati, Rhynocoris marginatus (Fab.), Rhynocoris kumarii Ambrose and Livingstone, Rhynocoris fuscipes (Fab.), Pristhesancus plagipennis Walker, Blaptostethus pallescens Poppius, Acanthaspis pedestris (Stål), Catamiarus brevipennis (Serville), Ectomocoris tibialis (Distant), etc.Even though reduviids are polyphagous predators, many have prey specialisations. Its biological control potential has been evaluated on crops like cotton, soybean, groundnut, bhindi and coconut in field and laboratory experiments and is being commonly used in biological control programmes. Distribution pattern, morphological characters, prey specificity and biological control potential under laboratory, field cage and natural field conditions have been discussed in elaborate manner.

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Section: Spider Feeders (Araneophagic)mentioning

confidence: 90%

Reduviids and Their Merits in Biological Control

Sahayaraj

2014

Basic and Applied Aspects of Biopesticides

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“…Even though the use of visual stimuli in hunts cannot be discarded at present, the fact that S. giraffa always orient their antennae towards the spiders, and the fact that they user them to tap the webs and the spiders, suggests that chemosensory and/or tactile information is important for these bugs. The use of chemosensory information from webs was demonstrated experimentally for Stenolemus bituberus, another assassin bug that preys on web-building spiders (Wignall & Taylor, 2009).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many spider predators or parasitoids are known to use chemical cues to locate spiders or direct their attacks (e.g., van Baarlen, Topping, & Sunderland, 1996;Uma & Weiss, 2010;Wignall & Taylor, 2009). For instance, chemotactile cues are necessary to produce stinging behavior in the spider-hunting wasps Sceliphron caementarium and Agenoideus humilis (Eberhard, 1970).…”

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confidence: 99%

A possible role of decorations in spiderwebs as protection devices that distract predators

Soley

2019

RBT

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Several functions have been proposed for silk decorations (i.e., stabilimenta) in spiderwebs. One hypothesis is that web decorations protect spiders from predators, either by concealing the spiders, physically shielding them, or by deflecting predatory attacks. This study uses data gathered in opportunistic manner when studying the behavior of Stenolemus giraffa, an assassin bug that preys almost exclusively on web-building spiders. Stenolemus giraffa approach orb spiders on foot, and usually capture the spiders at the hub region of the web. When pursuing spiders, S. giraffa routinely tap the web with their antennae, and also tap the spiders prior to attacking them. The observations available from this study suggest that S. giraffa got “distracted” momentarily by the decorations in the webs of Purumitra sp. (Uloboridae) and Argiope katherina (Araneidae). In some instances, the assassin bugs tapped these structures for several seconds or minutes instead of tapping the adjacent spiders. In interactions with A. katherina, S. giraffa was more successful at capturing the spiders when the webs lacked decorations; however, sample sizes are small (this could not be tested for Purumitra sp. because only one web lacked decorations). Finally, some of the spiders detected S. giraffa tapping the decorations or that had begun tapping the spiders and that had interrupted this behavior to tap the decorations. The data available suggest that, for S. giraffa, the decorations in these webs interfered with the process of locating the spiders. If further experiments corroborate this idea, this information would be in accord with Hingston’s (1927) hypothesis that web decorations can confuse spider predators.

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Testing presence of directionality information in female spider silk trails through male trail-following behavior

Beyer,

Uludag,

Lailler

et al. 2023

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Mate search is challenging for solitary species. Trails represent a particularly potent, target-oriented means for finding mates, as trail-following increases encounter rates between individuals compared to random search. Embedding directionality information into the trail allows individuals to follow trails correctly to the source. Yet, directionality remains poorly understood. Spiders deposit trails during locomotion consisting of silk lines and substrate-borne chemicals. We conducted multiple experiments to test whether female silk trails convey directionality information, whether directionality is chemically or structurally encoded and depends on female phenotype. We also examined whether males interact with silk in a way that suggests information gathering. We exposed males of the cursorial spider Pisaura mirabilis to female trails deposited unidirectionally and scored their trail-following direction (i.e., same as or opposite to the females’). Tests were repeated after washing trails with a solvent to remove putative chemicals and by sourcing silk from females of different feeding regimes. While we found little evidence for male directional trail-following, we did find that unwashed trails were more likely to be followed than washed trails. Similarly, trails of relatively larger females were more likely to be followed correctly than those of smaller females. Males extensively probed and pulled on silk lines with their appendages, suggesting the gathering of chemical and tactile information. Taken together, results suggest that directional trail-following is selected only under specific contexts in this species. Chemical attributes of trails may convey information on female quality, with directional trail-following reflecting male mate choice in a system characterized by costly male nuptial gifts. Significance statement In the context of male mate search, following conspecific trails increases the chances of encountering a mating partner, especially if trails provide information about the direction the conspecific went. Yet, trail directionality remains poorly understood. Female spiders deposit silk trails as they walk. We overall show that males follow trails directionally only under a specific context. Males were more likely to follow correctly when trails were unmanipulated (compared to being washed with solvents to remove chemicals) and when they were deposited by relatively larger females (compared to smaller ones). Chemical attributes of trails may potentially indicate directionality, while decoding movement direction from trails of larger females may reflect male preferences for females of higher reproductive value.

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Responses of an araneophagic assassin bug, Stenolemus bituberus, to spider draglines

Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

Reduviids and Their Merits in Biological Control

Reduviids and Their Merits in Biological Control

A possible role of decorations in spiderwebs as protection devices that distract predators

Testing presence of directionality information in female spider silk trails through male trail-following behavior

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