J. Exp. Zool. India Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 813-816, 2019 www.connectjournals.com/jez ISSN 0972-0030 STUDIES ON HABIT AND HABITAT, EXTERNAL MORPHOLOGY, FEEDING CAPACITY AND PREY PREFERENCE OF GRAY WALL JUMPER SPIDER, MENEMERUS BIVITTATUS (DUFOUR) S. N. Chaubey*, R. S. Mishra and P. R. Yadav1 Department of Zoology, S.D.J. P. G. College, Chandeshwar, Azamgarh - 276 128, India. 1Department of Zoology, D. A. V. College, Muzaffarnagar - 251 001, India. *e-mail : [email protected] (Received 30 December 2018, Accepted 26 February 2019) ABSTRACT : Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate habit and habitat, external morphology, feeding capacity and prey preference of gray wall jumper spider, Menemerus bivittatus (Dufour) collected from various places of Azamgarh district of U.P. It is a member of family Salticidae usually found on the walls of buildings or on tree trunks. The spiders are about nine millimeter long, the male being slightly smaller than the female.Both young and old spiders feed mainly on small flies which alight on walls. They do not build a web but instead, stalk their prey before launching an attack by leaping on the victim. Male spiders of this species possess a stridulatory apparatus, which consists of several long bristles on the palpal femur and a series of horizontal ridges on the outer side of the chelicerae. Sound is generated when the spider rubs these ridges up and down against the palpal teeth. Key words :Menemerus bivittatus, habit and habitat, external morphology, feeding capacity, prey preference, economic importance, bio-control agent. INTRODUCTION species, making it the largest family of spiders with about Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have good vision that have eight legs and chelicerae with fangs that and use it for hunting and navigating. They are capable inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and of jumping from place to place, secured by a silk tether. rank seventh in total species diversity among all These are generally recognized by their eye pattern. All other orders of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide jumping spiders have four pairs of eyes with very large on every continent except for Antarctica and have become anterior median eyes. These are generally diurnal active established in nearly every habitat with the exceptions of hunters. Their well developed internal hydraulic system air and sea colonization. extends their limbs by altering the pressure of body fluid (haemolymph) within them. This enables the spiders to Spiders plays an important role in regulating insect jump without having large muscular legs like a pests in the agricultural ecosystem. They consume a large grasshopper. Most jumping spiders can jump several times number of insect pests and do not damage plants. They the length of their body. can achieve and equilibrium in pest control, after which their own numbers are suppressed by their territoriality Jumping spiders are active hunters, which means, that and cannibalism. For some time, spiders have been they do not rely on a web to catch their prey. Instead, considered important predators which help regulate the these spiders stalk their prey. They use their superior population densities of insect pests (Tanaka, 1989). In eyesight to distinguish and track their intended meals, often particular, spider communities in areas with a temperate for several inches. Then they pounce, giving the insect climate achieve equilibrium in the control of agricultural little to no time to react before succumbing to the spider’s pests. In spite of this, they have not usually been treated venom. as an important biological control agent, because there is Vijayalakshmi and Ahimaz (1993) have given a so little information on the ecological role of spiders in descriptive account of spiders. Gajbe (2004) has provided pest control (Riechert and Lockley, 1984). a detailed account of spiders of Jabalpur, Madhya The jumping spider family (Salticidae) contains more Pradesh. Rao et al (2005) have described arachnid fauna than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described of Nallamalai region, Eastern Ghats Andhra Pradesh (India) and Majumder (2007) has given a detailed account 814 S. N. Chaubey et al of taxonomic studies of some spiders from Mangrove and alcohol in a closed pair of petridish overnight before Semi-Mangrove areas of Sunderban. Chaubey and Mishra transferring to tubes for permanent preservation. The glass (2016 and 2017) have reported Cyrtophoraci catrosa vial containing preserved specimens were stoppered by a (Stolockza) and Euctacham berlini (Simon) from U.P. rubber cork to prevent evaporation of alcohol. India. Chaubey and Yadav (2017) have also reported Alternatively, glass vials were plugged by cotton and Plexippus paykuli (Audeuin) from various places of group of these tubes were then placed in large bottle Azamgarh district of U.P. They have described various containing alcohol. This was the method used for aspects of these spiders and suggested for use of spiders preserving most specimens. Each collecting tube enclosed as bio-control agents in controlling insect pests of crop a label indicating the collection data. Collection data fields (Chiu, 1979 and Tanaka, 1989). includes the name of the collector, place of collection, From the review of literature, it appears that role of date of collection and habitat of collection. spiders as bio-control agents in agriculture, poultry as Photography : Live photographs of all important well as in controlling house-hold insects is being studied spiders were taken with the help of Web Cam of 12 mega in various parts of the world, but unfortunately, no proper pixel attached to computer. For taking alive photographs, investigation, regarding role of these efficient bio-control the spiders were anesthetized with mild doses of agents in India is scanty. chloroform in specimen tubes. Generally, major diagnostic In the present investigation, therefore, it has been features such as dorsal view, ventral view, ocular area proposed to find out habit and habitat, external and side view were taken for the study. Natural morphology, preying capacity and prey preference of photographs of spiders were taken while they were feeding Menemerus bivittatus, a jumping spider collected from on insects. various places of Azamgarh district in U.P. (India). Identification : It was done on the basis of MATERIALS AND METHODS morphometric characters of various body parts. The help was mainly taken from the keys and catalogues provided Collection of spiders : Individuals of Menemerus by Biswas and Biswas (2003), Nentwig et al (2003) and bivittatus were collected from crop fields, orchards, Plantik (2004). ornamental and wild plants. Study of prey choice : To study the prey choice of Mehods of collection : Following techniques were the collected spiders, adult house flies, rice moth, used for collection of spiders: mosquitoes and their larvae and small insects were Jarring : The foliage spider fauna was collected by supplied to spiders which were kept under rearing jerking the plants on a cloth sheet, from which the chambers. specimens were transferred alive in to plastic containers Each rearing chamber (9.5 cm height, 6.0 cm length having pores in their corks for aeration and brought to and width) was consisted of transparent plastic containers. the laboratory for studies. The lid of each container was provided with small holes Direct hand picking : Collection of most web for aeration. Since, spiders are highly cannibalistic, building spiders was made by direct hand picking with individual spiders were kept in separate chambers. the help of test tubes. To study prey choice, spiders were kept starved for Inverted Umbrella : In this method an inverted 24 h, then each spider was supplied with larvae and adults umbrella was placed below flowering shoots and bushes of moths, house flies and mosquitoes along with small and when the tree or branch was thoroughly shaken, insects collected from houses and surroundings (five spiders along with insects fallen to the inverted umbrella. individuals of each kind of prey in each rearing chamber). After removing leaves, spiders were transferred into After 12h number of fed and live prey individuals were collecting tubes. counted to find out preference of their prey. Attempts were Preservation : Before the spiders were permanently also made to take live photographs while spiders were preserved they were arranged properly. For this, collected feeding the prey. specimens were transferred into petridish containing Study of preying potential : For this purpose spiders Isopropyl alcohol. It was kept covered undisturbed for were kept starved for 24h and then each spider was about 2 or 3 hours in order to allow the relaxation of supplied with various kinds of insect pests like adult body muscles. The body parts like legs, abdomen, and moths, house flies and mosquitoes (ten individuals of each palps were then arranged in a life like manner with the type) separately in their individual rearing chambers. After help of forceps and brush. Spiders were then kept in 12h, dead, fed and live prey were counted. Habit and habitat, external morphology, feeding capacity and prey preference of M. bivittatus 815 1 2 3 Menemerus bivittatus: Fig. 1 : Antero dorsal view of male, Fig. 2: Female preying on moth, Fig. 3 : Dorsal view of female. Statistical analyses : Each experiment was repeated generally paler and much brown, with a larger carapace ten times and student’s t-test was applied for comparison and abdomen (Fig. 3). Her carapace is edged with two between two sample means. black bands and a thin white stripe and her abdomen is RESULTS edged with broad black stripes on each side which unite at the posterior end. Her legs are banded but are paler Habits and Habitat : Menemerus bivittatus is a than those of the male. Immature spiders resemble the spider in the Salticidae family commonly known as female.