Meeting Abstract
There are a variety of different factors that can influence the outcome of predator-prey interactions. One factor that has received little attention is how physical impairment can influence the ability of prey to survive predation events. In this study, we aimed to identify how a specific type of physical injury common to wolf spiders, autotomy, can influence how capable prey are at surviving predation. We further aimed to ascertain whether wolf spiders could use predator chemical cues to alter their behavior and possibly avoid consumption. Female predatory Rabidosa santrita wolf spiders were captured and allowed to deposit chemical cues in half of the foraging arenas for three days prior to all predation trials. Females of the smaller prey species (Pardosa valens) were captured and then brought back to the laboratory. If eggs sacs were present they were removed, and half of the P. valens had a randomly chosen leg IV removed. P. valens were then allowed 24 hours to acclimate to laboratory and physical impairment conditions. Prey were then placed in Tupperware arenas (half of which contained chemical cues, and half of which did not) and allowed to acclimate for an additional one hour before the introduction of the R. santrita predators. Containers were checked at predetermined intervals for prey mortality for a total of 24 hours. Data analysis indicates the loss of a leg did not significantly affect the ability of a prey spider to survive an encounter with a larger R. santrita, perhaps because P. valens have the ability to compensate for such injuries. When predator cues were present, both intact and autotomized P. valens survived longer than when cues were not present. This indicates that prey spiders may use chemosensory information from their environment to alter their anti-predator behavior.
