Publication details
Sex-specific kleptoparasitic foraging in ant-eating spiders
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Animal Behaviour |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Zoology |
| Keywords | Araneae; food stealing; kleptoparasitism; ontogenetic shift; scrounging; sex-specific roles; sexual dimorphism; Zodarion jozefienae |
| Description | Foraging by intraspecific kleptoparasitism is widespread among animal taxa. Most kleptoparasitic interactions are considered facultative, and can be influenced by life history stage and trade-offs with other activities such as mate searching. Trade-offs with mating strategies are often sex specific when males are selected to invest in mate searching while females engage in foraging to maximize fecundity. As a result, sexual dimorphism in opportunistic foraging may evolve, and would predict an ontogenetic shift from the juvenile to the adult stage where males could adopt opportunistic foraging. To investigate this hypothesis, we studied the effect of sex and life history stage on the frequency of kleptoparasitism in ant-eating spiders of the genus Zodarion in the field. These spiders use a special capture technique involving a quick attack on an ant that is left unguarded by spiders for several minutes, providing ample opportunities for kleptoparasitism. . |
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