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Spiders (Araneae) Collected As Prey By The Mud-Dauber Wasps Sceliphron Caementarium And Chalybion Californicum (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) In Southeastern Nebraska1, Tyler B. Corey, Earl Agpawa, Eileen Hebets
Spiders (Araneae) Collected As Prey By The Mud-Dauber Wasps Sceliphron Caementarium And Chalybion Californicum (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) In Southeastern Nebraska1, Tyler B. Corey, Earl Agpawa, Eileen Hebets
Eileen Hebets Publications
Predator diets represent a potential interaction between local prey availability, prey antipredator defenses, and predator foraging behavior. Female spider-specialist muddauber wasps (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) collect spiders and provision them intact, but paralyzed, to their developing larvae, providing a unique means of quantifying the diversity and abundance of prey that they capture. Mud-dauber wasps are hypothesized to be a major source of selection on antipredator defenses in web-building spiders, and the spiny and thickened abdomens of female spiny orb-weaving spiders (Araneae: Araneidae) are hypothesized to function as antiwasp defenses. We inventoried spider prey from nests of the mud-dauber wasps Sceliphron caementarium (Drury) …
More Ornamented Males Exhibit Increased Predation Risk And Antipredatory Escapes, But Not Greater Mortality, Kasey D. Fowler-Finn, Eileen Hebets
More Ornamented Males Exhibit Increased Predation Risk And Antipredatory Escapes, But Not Greater Mortality, Kasey D. Fowler-Finn, Eileen Hebets
Eileen Hebets Publications
Secondary sexual traits not only confer benefits to their bearer through increased mate acquisition, but may also have inherent costs, including the attraction of predators. Here, we examined the relationship between conspicuous secondary sexual traits and predation costs using two male morphs of Schizocosa wolf spiders: brushlegged and non-ornamented. In the field, we ran two predation experiments using artificial enclosures to directly test mortality costs of predation on the two male morphs. Using a natural predator, a larger wolf spider in the genus Hogna, we found no difference in predation on brush-legged vs. non-ornamented males. However, predation was depends …