Salticidi: capacità sensoriali

[tongi]

E' comparso recentemente su ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR vol. 70 (4), 2005, pp. 771-776

il seguente articolo di cui inserisco l'abstract. L'argomento può essere di un certo interesse

 

Paolo

 

 

Ultraviolet cues affect the foraging behaviour of jumping spiders

 

Daiqin Li, and Matthew L.M. Lim

 

Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore

 

Jumping spiders have long been known to have large

principal eyes with ultraviolet (UV) receptors, and

many species of their arthropod prey have body parts

that reflect strongly in the UV waveband. However,

no attempt has been made to investigate the effects

of UV cues from prey on the foraging behaviour of

jumping spiders. We performed laboratory experiments

to test the hypothesis that jumping spiders use UV

ues for locating and discriminating prey. We used

Portia labiata, a web-invading, spider-eating jumping

spider, as the predator and Argiope versicolor, an

orb-web-building spider that decorates its web with

UV-reflecting silk stabilimenta, as prey. Portia labiata

could detect the difference between UV-reflecting

and non-UV-reflecting stabilimentum-decorated webs

and they preferentially approached the UV-reflecting

ones. These findings may have wide implications for

studies of animal foraging, and support one hypothesized

function of salticid UV vision, the role of which is largely

unknown.

[Araneus]

Davvero molto interessante!!!! I salticidi, che sono da sempre stati i miei preferiti, adesso mi affascinano ancora di più!