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Copyright © 2012 Josiah O. Kuja et al. Josiah O. Kuja et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider, is known for feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood by actively choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as prey. Using cold-anthrone tests to detect fructose, we demonstrate that E. culicivoraalso feeds on nectar. Field-collected individuals, found on the plant Lantana camara, tested positive for plant sugar (fructose). In the laboratory, E. culicivoratested positive for fructose after being kept with L. camaraor one of another ten plant species ( Aloe vera, Clerodendron magnifica, Hamelia patens, Lantana montevideo, Leonotis nepetaefolia, Parthenium hysterophorus, Ricinus communis, Senna didymobotrya, Striga asiatica, and Verbena trivernia). Our findings demonstrate that E. culicivoraacquires fructose from its natural diet and can ingest fructose directly from plant nectaries. However, experiments in the laboratory also show that E. culicivoracan obtain fructose indirectly by feeding on prey that have fed on fructose, implying a need to consider this possibility when field-collected spiders test positive for fructose. In laboratory tests, 53.5% of 1,215 small juveniles, but only 3.4% of 622 adult E. culicivora, left with plants for 24 hours, were positive for fructose. These findings, along with the field data, suggest that fructose is especially important for early-instar juveniles of E. culicivora.

Details

Title
Nectar Meals of a Mosquito-Specialist Spider
Author
Kuja, Josiah O; Jackson, Robert R; Sune, Godfrey O; Karanja, Rebecca N H; Lagat, Zipporah O; Carvell, Georgina E
Publication year
2012
Publication date
2012
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISSN
00332615
e-ISSN
16877438
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1282294195
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Josiah O. Kuja et al. Josiah O. Kuja et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.