General Research Papers/Topics

The Attentive Spider: Search-Image Use by a Mosquito-Eating Predator

Abstract: Evarcha culicivora, a jumping spider from East Africa, feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-carrying female mosquitoes as prey.It also has an unusually complex mate-choice system. Here, we show that both sexes of E. culicivora can use mate-finding search images and also use prey-finding search images. In experiments, individuals were primed by seeing blood-carrying mosquitoes, primed by seeing potential mates or not primed (control: saw neither). They were then in...