Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 555-556 (2020) (published online on 12 July 2020)

Predation on the common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus Schlegel, 1836 by the brown widow spider Latrodectus geometricus Koch, 1941 in Colima, Mexico

Manuel de Luna1,*, Martín Rodríguez1, and Roberto García Barrios1

The common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus capucinus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Mata-Silva et al., 2013) Schlegel, 1836 is a nocturnal Asian geckonid that has (Primates: Cebidae). been introduced to many American countries (Kraus, On September 28th, 2018, at around 0900 hours, 2009). Its impact over native fauna has been documented a sub-adult specimen of Hemidactylus frenatus was to lead to the displacement and even extinction of found outside a home in an urban area (19.2459 N, - native geckos (Case et al., 1994; Cole et al., 2005). 103.7257 W, 500 m) in the municipality of Colima, state Several species have been identified as predators of of Colima, Mexico. The gecko was dead, entangled Hemidactylus frenatus from both inside and outside its in a web which belonged to a female brown widow native range; these include the scorpion Centruroides spider Latrodectus geometricus Koch, 1941 (Araneae: elegans (Thorell, 1876) (Dominguez-de la Riva and Theridiidae), another introduced species in the region; Carbajal-Márquez, 2016) (Scorpiones: Buthidae); the spider was in the process of feeding upon the gecko the spiders Argiope picta Koch, 1871 (Turner, 2018) (Figure 1). (Araneae: Araneidae), Heteropoda sp. (Priyadarshana There are various recorded instances where female and Wijewardana, 2016) and H. venatoria Linnaeus, spiders of the genus Latrodectus Walckenaer, 1805 have 1767 (Purkayashta and Sourav, 2011; Neogi and Islam, taken vertebrate prey many times larger than themselves. 2017) (Araneae: Sparassidae); the lizards Anolis sagrei Duméril and Bibron, 1837 (Badillo-Saldaña et al., 2016) (Squamata: Dactyloidae), conspecifics (Galina-Tesaro et al., 1999; Díaz-Pérez et al. 2017), Hemidactylus flaviviridis (Rüppell, 1835) (Parves and Alam, 2015) and Hemidactylus platyurus (Schneiger, 1797) (Kusuma and Hadimy, 2017) (Squamata: Gekkonidae); the snakes Dendrelaphis calligaster (Günther, 1867) (Kusuma and Hadimy, 2017) and Leptophis mexicanus (Duméril et al. 1854) (Carbajal Márquez et al., 2019) (Squamata: Colubridae); the birds Eumomota superciliosa (Sandbach, 1837) (Yannarella and Abarca, 2017) (Coraciiformes: Momotidae) and Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) (Rojas-González and Wakida-Kusunoki, 2012) (Passeriformes: Icteridae); and the primate Cebus

Figure 1. A dead sub-adult common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus entangled in the web of an adult female brown widow spider Latrodectus geometricus, being consumed. In the back 1 Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Manuel L. Barragán there are three spider egg-sacs, which are spiky, a characteristic Avenue, Ciudad Universitaria, San Nicolás de los Garza, not found in the egg-sacs of other Latrodectus species present Nuevo León, 66455, México. in North America. Municipality of Colima, Colima, Mexico. * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Photo taken by Martín Rodríguez. 556 Manuel de Luna et al.

Particularly, L. geometricus is known to have preyed (Sauria: Gekkonidae) en el norte de Colombia. Papéis Avulsos upon a juvenile deer mouse Peromyscus maniculatus de Zoologia 57(36): 459–472. (Wagner, 1845) (Rodentia: Cricetidae), a young old- Domínguez-de la Riva, M.A., Carbajal-Márquez, R.A. (2016): Hemidactylus frenatus. Predation. Mesoamerican Herpetology world rat Rattus sp. (Rodentia: Muridae) (Nyffeler and 3(3): 724–725. Vetter, 2018), the blindsnake Indotyphlops braminus Galina-Tesaro, P., Ortega-Rubio, A., Álvarez-Cárdenas, S., (Daudin, 1803) (Martínez-Coronel and Navarrete- Arnaud, G. (1999): Colonization of Socorro Island (Mexico), Jiménez, 2018) (Squamata: Typhlopidae) and an adult by the tropical house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus (Squamata: neotropical black-headed snake Tantilla melanocephala Gekkonidae). Revista de Biología Tropical 47: 237–238. (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata: Colubridae) (Rocha et al., Kraus, F. (2009): Alien Reptiles and Amphibians, a Scientific 2017); however, this is the first recorded instance of it Compendium and Analysis. Dordrecht, Netherlands, Springer. Kusuma, K.I., Hamidy, A. (2017): Hemidactylus frenatus (House taking a lizard as prey. Gecko). Predation. Herpetological Review 48(1): 192. The brown widow spider is commonly found in urban Mata-Silva, V., Wilson, L.D., Johnson, J.D. (2013): Hemidactylus and peri-urban habitats throughout Mexico, similarly, frenatus (Common House Gecko). Predation. Herpetological several species of geckos, both native and introduced, Review 44(3): 508–509. are also found in these habitats. Given that this spider Martínez-Coronel, M., Navarrete-Jiménez, A. (2018): Indotyphlops feeds on a wide array of species of considerable size braminus (Brahminy blindsnake) Spider predation. variation (from small insects to medium sized rodents) it Herpetological Review 49(4): 754. Neogi, A.K., Islam, M.N. (2017): Giant Crab Spider: Predation of should be expected that geckos and other small reptiles Common House Gecko Hemidactylus frenatus Schlegel, 1836 could be preyed upon by this species. by Giant Crab Spider Heteropoda venatoria Linnaeus, 1767. Reptiles being preyed upon by spiders is certainly Zoo’s Print 32(8): 22–24 not an unreported phenomenon and many instances Nyffeler, M., Vetter, R.S. (2018): Black widow spiders, Latrodectus have been documented. The primary spider families spp. (Araneae: Theridiidae), and other spiders feeding on which have been documented to feed upon reptiles mammals. Journal of Arachnology 46: 541–548. are tarantulas (Theraphosidae), huntsman spiders Parves, N., Alam, S.M.I. (2015): Hemidactylus flaviviridis (Reptilia : Gekkonidae): Predation on congeneric Hemidactylus (Sparassidae), wandering spiders (Ctenidae), nursery- frenatus in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Herpetological Bulletin 132: web spiders (Pisauridae), wolf spiders (Lycosidae) and 28–29. jumping spiders (Salticidae), which rely on ambush, Priyadarshana, T.S., Wijewardana, I.H. (2016): Hemidactylus fast strikes and strength to overpower their prey; orb frenatus (Common House Gecko). Predation. Herpetological weaving spiders (Araneidae) and tangle-web spiders Review 47(2): 298–299. (Theridiidae) instead use their sticky webs to capture Purkayastha, J., Sourav, MD.S.H. (2011): Hemidactylus frenatus and immobilize such prey (Beccaloni, 2009). (Common House Gecko). Predation. Herpetological Review 42(4): 603–604. Rocha, C.R., Motta, P.C., Portella, A.S., Saboya, M., Brandao, References R. (2017): Predation of the snake Tantilla melanocephala Badillo-Saldaña, L.M., Beteta-Hernández, C.I., Ramírez-Bautista, (Squamata: Colubridae) by the spider Latrodectus geometricus A., Lara-Tufiño, J.D., Pineda López, R. (2016): First records (Araneae: Theridiidae) in Central Brazil. 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