Predatory behaviour and biology of a mosquito-eating jumping spider, Paracyrba wanlessi

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that certain species of jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) demonstrate a pronounced prey preference towards particular prey. Paracyrba wanlessi is a salticid from that is known to feed on larval and adult mosquitoes in nature, but it is not known if this is an actual prey preference. I performed prey choice tests using adult P. wanlessi to examine if they show a preference for mosquitoes over other insects as prey. My results demonstrated that P. wanlessi showed a preference for adult female mosquitoes over all other prey, including larval mosquitoes. I also conducted growth rate experiments on P. wanlessi and found that spiders reared on a mixed diet showed best overall growth and lowest mortality, followed closely by those reared on a non-blood fed mosquito diet. Spiders reared on blood fed mosquitoes and on D. melanogaster did poorly, with high mortality rates and few spiders reaching maturity.