Friday, 13 October 2006

entomology - Is it true that there is a spider that eats parasites from caterpillars

Oddly enough it is a bit difficult to find good field studies where the diet of spiders was studied. I have a feeling it's a hard thing to get funding for. Luckily some do exist.



Peucetia viridans has been shown to eat from the Chrysididae family and Lepidoptera order, but I didn't find an explicit statement that it ate the larvae out of the caterpillar. Likewise Oxyopes globifer was found to have eaten from the Braconidae family and Lepidotera.



At this point you might be wondering why I'm looking for spiders that have been shown to eat both parasitoids (Chrysididae and Braconidae) and caterpillars (Lepidotera). It my assumption that in the scenario you describe a spider that would normal eat ether the caterpillar or the larvae would be just as happy to eat them both if it was lucky enough to find them.



I could find one example where it seems wolf spiders under the right conditions might seek out larvae, and I found a fun photo of a wolf spider eating larvae (though not the kind in the study).



I never saw the video you were talking about, and I too could not find it. It is not unreasonable to assume that an opportunistic spider wouldn't just take the opportunity to feed on both, or that it might find the larvae more tasty and just eat them. I've not found a spider seeking caterpillar as of yet.

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