Sheetweb spiders don’t immediately pounce on fireflies caught in their webs, and for good reason, according to new research.
Fireflies glow to attract mates. As new research shows, however, a certain species of spider has learned to take advantage of this luminous natural phenomenon.
In a Journal of Animal Ecology paper published August 27, ecologists report that the sheetweb spider (Psechrus clavis) appears to exploit firefly luminescence to attract more prey. Observational analysis and lab experiments revealed that, by using firefly light as bait, the nocturnal predators improved their hunting success. This is the second time researchers have observed such behavior in spiders, although the new paper describes a completely different species of spider.
“This study sheds new light on the ways that nocturnal sit-and-wait predators can rise to the challenges of attracting prey and provides a unique perspective on the complexity of predator-prey interactions,” said I-Min Tso, study senior author and an ecologist at Tunghai University in Taiwan, in a release.
