Cargando…

Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae)

True predators are characterised by capturing a number of prey items during their lifetime and by being generalists. Some true predators are facultative specialists, but very few species are stenophagous specialists that catch only a few closely related prey types. A monophagous true predator that w...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Petráková, Lenka, Líznarová, Eva, Pekár, Stano, Haddad, Charles R., Sentenská, Lenka, Symondson, William O. C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4566138/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26359085
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep14013
_version_ 1782389678569160704
author Petráková, Lenka
Líznarová, Eva
Pekár, Stano
Haddad, Charles R.
Sentenská, Lenka
Symondson, William O. C.
author_facet Petráková, Lenka
Líznarová, Eva
Pekár, Stano
Haddad, Charles R.
Sentenská, Lenka
Symondson, William O. C.
author_sort Petráková, Lenka
collection PubMed
description True predators are characterised by capturing a number of prey items during their lifetime and by being generalists. Some true predators are facultative specialists, but very few species are stenophagous specialists that catch only a few closely related prey types. A monophagous true predator that would exploit a single prey species has not been discovered yet. Representatives of the spider family Ammoxenidae have been reported to have evolved to only catch termites. Here we tested the hypothesis that Ammoxenus amphalodes is a monophagous termite-eater capturing only Hodotermes mossambicus. We studied the trophic niche of A. amphalodes by means of molecular analysis of the gut contents using Next Generation Sequencing. We investigated their willingness to accept alternative prey and observed their specific predatory behaviour and prey capture efficiency. We found all of the 1.4 million sequences were H. mossambicus. In the laboratory A. amphalodes did not accept any other prey, including other termite species. The spiders attacked the lateral side of the thorax of termites and immobilised them within 1 min. The paralysis efficiency was independent of predator:prey size ratio. The results strongly indicate that A. amphalodes is a monophagous prey specialist, specifically adapted to feed on H. mossambicus.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4566138
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Nature Publishing Group
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45661382015-09-15 Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae) Petráková, Lenka Líznarová, Eva Pekár, Stano Haddad, Charles R. Sentenská, Lenka Symondson, William O. C. Sci Rep Article True predators are characterised by capturing a number of prey items during their lifetime and by being generalists. Some true predators are facultative specialists, but very few species are stenophagous specialists that catch only a few closely related prey types. A monophagous true predator that would exploit a single prey species has not been discovered yet. Representatives of the spider family Ammoxenidae have been reported to have evolved to only catch termites. Here we tested the hypothesis that Ammoxenus amphalodes is a monophagous termite-eater capturing only Hodotermes mossambicus. We studied the trophic niche of A. amphalodes by means of molecular analysis of the gut contents using Next Generation Sequencing. We investigated their willingness to accept alternative prey and observed their specific predatory behaviour and prey capture efficiency. We found all of the 1.4 million sequences were H. mossambicus. In the laboratory A. amphalodes did not accept any other prey, including other termite species. The spiders attacked the lateral side of the thorax of termites and immobilised them within 1 min. The paralysis efficiency was independent of predator:prey size ratio. The results strongly indicate that A. amphalodes is a monophagous prey specialist, specifically adapted to feed on H. mossambicus. Nature Publishing Group 2015-09-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4566138/ /pubmed/26359085 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep14013 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Petráková, Lenka
Líznarová, Eva
Pekár, Stano
Haddad, Charles R.
Sentenská, Lenka
Symondson, William O. C.
Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae)
title Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae)
title_full Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae)
title_fullStr Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae)
title_full_unstemmed Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae)
title_short Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae)
title_sort discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (araneae: ammoxenidae)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4566138/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26359085
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep14013
work_keys_str_mv AT petrakovalenka discoveryofamonophagoustruepredatoraspecialisttermiteeatingspideraraneaeammoxenidae
AT liznarovaeva discoveryofamonophagoustruepredatoraspecialisttermiteeatingspideraraneaeammoxenidae
AT pekarstano discoveryofamonophagoustruepredatoraspecialisttermiteeatingspideraraneaeammoxenidae
AT haddadcharlesr discoveryofamonophagoustruepredatoraspecialisttermiteeatingspideraraneaeammoxenidae
AT sentenskalenka discoveryofamonophagoustruepredatoraspecialisttermiteeatingspideraraneaeammoxenidae
AT symondsonwilliamoc discoveryofamonophagoustruepredatoraspecialisttermiteeatingspideraraneaeammoxenidae