Herpetology Notes, volume 12: 629-630 (2019) (published online on 18 June 2019)

Predation on haddadi (Anura, ) by the orb-web spider Parawixia kochi (Araneae, Araneidae) in a cacao plantation in southern Bahia,

Marcelo Sena1 and Mirco Solé 1,2,*

While on one hand spiders are commonly preyed of Dendropsophus haddadi inside an orb-web of the by a wide variety of anuran , on the other spider Parawixia kochi about 150 cm above the ground spiders also prey on anuran amphibians. In several (Fig. 1). The spider had already poisoned the , spun cases it is just a matter of prey-predator size relation or several layers of silk fibers around it and was feeding frog development stage. For instance, while juvenile on it. As we were not able to determine the sex of the Leptodactylus latrans are preyed by adult lycosid frog, based on the approximate size we inferred it was spiders (Hogna sp.), adult individuals of this frog species an adult individual of Dendropsophus haddadi (SVL can prey upon these spiders (Giambelluca et al., 2010). range: 16.7–20.8 mm). This hylid species lays eggs Most of the spiders that have been reported to feed on anurans are ambush predators on the ground or on the water surface. They belong to the families Pisauridae, Ctenidae, Lycosidae, Sparassidae, and Theraphosidae (Menin et al., 2005; Toledo et al., 2007; Bovo et al., 2014). These kinds of spiders represent only a small part of the worldwide spider diversity (World Spider Catalog, 2019). Several spiders spin orb-webs to catch all kinds of flying insects; however, they are seldom reported to capture or other vertebrates (Nyffeler and Birkhofer, 2017). Here, we document a predation event involving a spider (predator) and a frog (prey) observed under natural conditions. On 15 November 2011, around 20:00 h local time, during an survey at a temporary pond in a cocoa plantation located behind the campus of the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (14°47’45’’S, 39°10’20’’W), Municipality of Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil, we found a dead adult individual

1 Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós- graduação em Zoologia, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Jorge Amado, Km 16, Salobrinho, Ilhéus, Bahia 45662-900, Brazil. 2 Herpetology Section, Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Figure 1. Orb-web spider Parawixia kochi preying upon Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn, an adult Dendropsophus haddadi. The orb web was 150 cm Germany. above the ground, between the roots of a fallen tree, near the * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] edge of a temporary pond. 630 Marcelo Sena & Mirco Solé on leaves outside the water, and has previously been Kirchmeyer, J., Amaral, L.C., Magaldi, A., Baptista, R.L.C., recorded from Espirito Santo State to Pernambuco Carvalho-e-Silva, S.P. (2017): Predation on the treefrog Scinax State (Araújo-Neto et al., 2012). The species is very similis (Anura: Hylidae) by the orb-weaver spider Eriophora fuliginea (Araneae: Araneidae) in southeastern Brazil. common in southern Bahia and during the night of our Phyllomedusa 16: 113–116. observation several male individuals were calling from Levi, H.W. (2002): Keys to the genera of araneid orbweavers the marginal pond vegetation and some couples forming (Araneae, Araneidae) of the Americas. The Journal of amplexi could also be observed a few meters from the Arachnology 30: 527–562. place where the predation event took place. Parawixia Menin, M., Rodrigues, D.J., Azevedo, C.S. (2005): Predation on kochi is a spider with nocturnal habits that can be found amphibians by spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) in the Neotropical from the Amazon basin in Venezuela to the state of region. Phyllomedusa 4: 39–47. Muscat, E., Rotenberg, E.L., Chagas, C.A. (2014): Predation Paraná in Brazil (Levi, 2002). Other reports of anuran of Scinax littoralis (Anura: Hylidae) by Eriophora fuliginea predation by spiders that weave orbs include Eriophora (Arenae: Araneidae) in southeastern Brazil. Herpetology Notes fuliginea capturing Ololygon littoralis at Ubatuba, São 7: 169–170. Paulo, Brazil (Muscat et al., 2014) and Scinax similis Nyffeler, M., Birkhofer, K. (2017): An estimated 400-800 million at Poço das Antas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Kirchmeyer tons of prey are annually killed by the global spider community. et al., 2017), and Eriophora sp. consuming Teratohyla The Science of Nature 104: 30 spinosa at Tirimbina Biological Reserve in Costa Rica Toledo, L.F. (2005): Predation of juvenile and adult anurans by invertebrates: current knowledge and perspectives. (Folt and Lapinski, 2017). According to Toledo (2005) Herpetological Review 36: 395–400. the risk of predation by invertebrates is greater during Toledo, L.F., Ribeiro, R.S., Haddad, C.F.B. (2007): Anurans as two specific phases of their life cycle: the breeding prey: an exploratory analysis and size relationships between season and during or shortly after their metamorphosis. predators and their prey. Journal of Zoology 271: 170–177. Our observation was done near a pond where individuals World Spider Catalog (2019): World Spider Catalog. Version 19.5. of D. haddadi were calling to attract potential mating Natural History Museum Bern. Available at: http://wsc.nmbe. partners. We think that our finding supports the first ch. Accessed on 15 January 2019. assumption of Toledo (2005) that the preyed frog was probably showing increased motor activity due to calling performance or was captured while on its way towards or away from the pond. To our knowledge, this is the first record of an orb-web spider of the genus Parawixia capturing and feeding on an anuran within its web.

Acknowledgements. We thank Fabrício Hiroiuki Oda and Rudolf von May for very useful comments on the manuscript. The spider was identified by Antonio Domingos Brescovit (Instituto Butantan, São Paulo).

References

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