Hunger-driven response by a nectar-eating jumping spider to specific phytochemicals
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CHEMOECOLOGY
RESEARCH PAPER
Hunger-driven response by a nectar-eating jumping spider to specific phytochemicals Ximena J. Nelson • Robert R. Jackson
Received: 19 November 2012 / Accepted: 16 March 2013 Ó Springer Basel 2013
Abstract The jumping spider Evarcha culicivora (Salticidae) has unusual links to Lantana camara, a plant species to which it is attracted. Three phytochemicals from the headspace of L. camara (1,8 cineole and especially b-caryophyllene and a-humulene) attract adult E. culicivora. These spiders, especially early-instar juveniles, feed on nectar, but adults may use L. camara as mating sites. The hypothesis we consider here is that, for E. culicivora juveniles, although not for adults, responding to plant odor is relevant in the specific context of acquiring nectar meals. We show that juveniles resemble adults by responding to b-caryophyllene and a-humulene, but we found no significant attraction of juveniles to 1,8 cineole. We also show that, compared to sated E. culicivora juveniles, juveniles subjected to a 5-day pre-trial fast responded more strongly to living L. camara plants and to b-caryophyllene and a-humulene, but we found no significant effect of hunger level on response by adults to living plants. These results suggest that attraction to L. camara may have different functions for E. culicivora depending on the stage of its life history. Keywords Plant–arthropod interactions Sensory ecology Plant volatiles Sesquiterpene Salticidae Evarcha culicivora
X. J. Nelson (&) R. R. Jackson School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] R. R. Jackson International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Thomas Odhiambo Campus, P.O. Box 30, Mbita Point, Kenya
Introduction Many examples are known of specific volatile compounds, or blends of compounds, attracting insects to plants that serve as feeding or oviposition sites (e.g., Bruce et al. 2005; Kessler and Morrell 2010). Although less is known about spider–plant relationships, visiting plants can reward spiders with opportunities to feed on the insects that visit the same plants (Morse 2007; Romero et al. 2008) and many spiders also feed on nectar and other plant products (Pollard et al. 1995; Taylor and Pfannenstiel 2008; Chen et al. 2010). In the tropics, jumping spiders (Salticidae) are common on plants (e.g., Nahas et al. 2012), and there appear to be especially many examples of nectar feeding by tropical salticids (e.g., Jackson et al. 2001). Here, we investigate the salticid Evarcha culicivora, a tropical East African species known for its distinctive preference for blood-fed mosquitoes as prey (Jackson et al. 2005). E. culicivora is also unusual because it associates with the plant Lantana camara, the odor of which is attractive to adults (Cross and Jackson 2009). Furthermore, the courtship sequences of E. culicivora become more intricate and both sexes become more receptive to mating when encounters take place on L. camara (Cross
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