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Nest usurpation: a specialised hunting strategy used to overcome dangerous spider prey.

ABSTRACT: Hunting other predators is dangerous, as the tables can turn and the hunter may become the hunted. Specialized araneophagic (spider eating) predators have evolved intriguing hunting strategies that allow them to invade spiders' webs by adopting a stealthy approach or using aggressive mimicry. Here, we present a newly discovered, specialized hunting strategy of the araneophagic spider Poecilochroa senilis (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), which forces its way into the silk retreat of the potential spider prey and immobilizes it by swathing gluey silk onto its forelegs and mouthparts. Poecilochroa senilis has been reported from the nests of a several, often large, spider species in the Negev desert (Israel), suggesting specialization on spiders as prey. Nevertheless, in laboratory experiments, we found that P. senilis has a wider trophic niche, and fed readily on several small insect species. The specialized nest-invading attack was used more frequently with large spiders, and even small juvenile P. senilis were able to attack and subdue larger spiders. Our observations show that specific hunting tactics, like nest usurpation, allow specialized predators to overcome defences of dangerous prey.

SUBMITTER: Michalek O

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6441022 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Nest usurpation: a specialised hunting strategy used to overcome dangerous spider prey.

Michálek Ondřej O Lubin Yael Y Pekár Stano S

Scientific reports 20190329 1

Hunting other predators is dangerous, as the tables can turn and the hunter may become the hunted. Specialized araneophagic (spider eating) predators have evolved intriguing hunting strategies that allow them to invade spiders' webs by adopting a stealthy approach or using aggressive mimicry. Here, we present a newly discovered, specialized hunting strategy of the araneophagic spider Poecilochroa senilis (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), which forces its way into the silk retreat of the potential spider p ...[more]

PMID: 30926825

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Project description:Mice are opportunistic omnivores that readily learn to hunt and eat insects such as crickets. The details of how mice learn these behaviors and how these behaviors may differ in strains with altered neuroplasticity are unclear. We quantified the behavior of juvenile wild type and Shank3 knockout mice as they learned to hunt crickets during the critical period for ocular dominance plasticity. This stage involves heightened cortical plasticity including homeostatic synaptic scaling, which requires Shank3, a glutamatergic synaptic protein that, when mutated, produces Phelan-McDermid syndrome and is often comorbid with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both strains showed interest in examining live and dead crickets and learned to hunt. Shank 3 knockout mice took longer to become proficient, and, after 5 days, did not achieve the efficiency of wild type mice in either time-to-capture or distance-to-capture. Shank3 knockout mice also exhibited different characteristics when pursuing crickets that could not be explained by a simple motor deficit. Although both genotypes moved at the same average speed when approaching a cricket, Shank3 KO mice paused more often, did not begin final accelerations toward crickets as early, and did not close the distance gap to the cricket as quickly as wild type mice. These differences in Shank3 KO mice are reminiscent of some behavioral characteristics of individuals with ASD as they perform complex tasks, such as slower action initiation and completion. This paradigm will be useful for exploring the neural circuit mechanisms that underlie these learning and performance differences in monogenic ASD rodent models.Significance StatementDuring early development, activity-dependent plasticity mechanisms shape brain circuits. Shank3 is a synaptic protein that is mutated in Phelan-McDermid syndrome and is usually comorbid with autism spectrum disorder. Prior research shows that mice deficient in Shank3 exhibit abnormalities in a plasticity mechanism called homeostatic synaptic scaling. Here, we explore whether Shank3 knockout mice can learn to hunt crickets. We find that they can, although they pause more during their hunting and do not accelerate towards the cricket as rapidly. Future studies may be able to trace the neural circuits responsible for these differences, shedding more light on the causes of Phelan-McDermid syndrome and autism.

Dataset Information

Nest usurpation: a specialised hunting strategy used to overcome dangerous spider prey.

Publications

Nest usurpation: a specialised hunting strategy used to overcome dangerous spider prey.

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