Prey specificity of predatory venoms.

Venom represents a key adaptation of many venomous predators, allowing them to immobilise prey quickly through chemical rather than physical warfare. Evolutionary arms races between prey and a predator are believed to be the main factor influencing the potency and composition of predatory venoms. Predators with narrowly restricted diets are expected to evolve specifically potent venom towards their focal prey, with lower efficacy on alternative prey.

Winter activity of Clubiona spiders and their potential for pest control.

Winter-active arthropod predators (like vegetation-dwelling spiders) significantly suppress pest populations during winter in pome fruit orchards in Central Europe. Clubiona spiders are very abundant in orchards and have been observed to be active during winter. Here, we performed laboratory experiments to assess the movement and predation activity of clubionids at low temperatures.

The World Spider Trait database: a centralized global open repository for curated data on spider traits.

Spiders are a highly diversified group of arthropods and play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems as ubiquitous predators, which makes them a suitable group to test a variety of eco-evolutionary hypotheses. For this purpose, knowledge of a diverse range of species traits is required. Until now, data on spider traits have been scattered across thousands of publications produced for over two centuries and written in diverse languages.

Estimation of trophic niches in myrmecophagous spider predators.

Among spiders, taxonomically the most diversified group of terrestrial predators, only a few species are stenophagous and feed on ants. The levels of stenophagy and ant-specialisation vary among such species. To investigate whether stenophagy is only a result of a local specialisation both fundamental and realised trophic niches need to be estimated.

High Specific Efficiency of Venom of Two Prey-Specialized Spiders.

The venom of predators should be under strong selection pressure because it is a costly substance and prey may potentially become resistant. Particularly in prey-specialized predators, venom should be selected for its high efficiency against the focal prey. Very effective venom paralysis has been observed in specialized predators, such as spiders preying on dangerous prey.

Nest usurpation: a specialised hunting strategy used to overcome dangerous spider prey.

Hunting other predators is dangerous, as the tables can turn and the hunter may become the hunted. Specialized araneophagic (spider eating) predators have evolved intriguing hunting strategies that allow them to invade spiders' webs by adopting a stealthy approach or using aggressive mimicry. Here, we present a newly discovered, specialized hunting strategy of the araneophagic spider Poecilochroa senilis (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), which forces its way into the silk retreat of the potential spider prey and immobilizes it by swathing gluey silk onto its forelegs and mouthparts.

Venom gland size and venom complexity-essential trophic adaptations of venomous predators: A case study using spiders.

Specialized predators possess a variety of adaptations. In venomous predators, this may include the size of the venom gland and venom composition. It is expected that due to different foraging strategies, predators with a wide trophic niche (generalists) should possess larger venom glands that contain more diversified components than predators with a narrow niche (specialists).

Capture efficiency and trophic adaptations of a specialist and generalist predator: A comparison.

Specialist true predators are expected to exhibit higher capture efficiencies for the capture of larger and dangerous prey than generalist predators due to their possession of specialized morphological and behavioral adaptations. We used an araneophagous spider () and a generalist spider () as phylogenetically related model species and investigated their realized and fundamental trophic niches and their efficacy with respect to prey capture and prey handling. The trophic niche of both species confirmed that had a narrow trophic niche with a predominance of spider prey (including conspecifics), while the niche of was wide, without any preference.