Tie them up tight: wrapping by Philoponella vicinaspiders breaks, compresses and sometimes kills their prey

 

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs: Eberhard Chabtree, William G., Barrantes Montero, Gilbert, Weng, Ju Lin
Format: artículo original
Date de publication:2006
Description:We show that uloborid spiders, which lack the poison glands typical of nearly all other spiders, employ thousands of wrapping movements with their hind legs and up to hundreds of meters of silk line to make a shroud that applies substantial compressive force to their prey. Shrouds sometimes break the prey’s legs, buckle its compound eyes inward, or kill it outright. The compressive force apparently results from the summation of small tensions on sticky lines as they are applied to the prey package. Behavioral details indicate that wrapping is designed to compact prey; in turn, compaction probably functions to facilitate these spiders’ unusual method of feeding. This is the first demonstration that prey wrapping by spiders compacts and physically damages their prey, rather than simply restraining them.
Pays:Kérwá
Institution:Universidad de Costa Rica
Repositorio:Kérwá
OAI Identifier:oai:kerwa.ucr.ac.cr:10669/79090
Accès en ligne:https://hdl.handle.net/10669/79090
Mots-clés:Venom Gland
Spider Silk
Digestive Juice
Braconid Wasp
Individual Spider