SPECULATIVE HUNTINGBY ANARANEOPHAGICSAL TICID SPIDER by ROBERT J.CLARK , DUANE P.HARLAND and ROBERT R.JACKSON 1,2) (Departmentof Zoology,University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand) (Acc.3-VII-2000) Summary Portia mbriata ,anaraneophagic jumping spider ( Salticidae),makes undirected leaps ( er- raticleaping with no particulartarget being evident) in the presence of chemicalcues from Jacksonoidesqueenslandicus ,anothersalticid and a commonprey of P. mbriata. Whether undirectedleaping by P. mbriata functionsas hunting by speculation is investigatedexperi- mentally.Our rsthypothesis, that undirected leaps provoke movement by J.queenslandicus , wasinvestigated using living P. mbriata andthree types of luresmade from dead, dry arthro- pods (P. mbriata, J.queenslandicus and Muscadomestica ).When a living P. mbriata made undirectedleaps or aspring-drivendevice made the lures suddenly move up and down, sim- ulatingundirected leaping, J.queenslandicus respondedby wavingits palps and starting to walk.There was no statisticalevidence that the species from which the lure was made in u- enced J.queenslandicus ’responsein these tests. Our second hypothesis, that J.queenslandi- cus revealsits location to P. mbriata bymoving, was investigated by recording P. mbriata’s reaction to J.queenslandicus when J.queenslandicus reactedto luressimulating undirected leaping.In these tests, P. mbriata respondedby turning toward J.queenslandicus and waving its palps. Keywords: Portia mbriata , Jacksonoidesqueenslandicus ,jumpingspiders, predation, spec- ulativehunting. 1) Correspondingauthor; e-mail address:
[email protected] 2) WethankPhil T aylorand David Blest for useful discussion and valuable comments on the manuscript.Financial support was provided by theNational Science Foundation ( GrantBNS 861078)and the Marsden Fund of New Zealand(Grant UOC512). c KoninklijkeBrill NV ,Leiden,2000 Behaviour137, 1601-1612 ® 1602 CLARK, HARLAND&JACKSON Introduction Ageneralproblem facing predators is howto locate prey(Curio, 1976).