Effect of Kleptoparasitic Ants on the
Foraging Behavior of Social Spider Stegodyphus
sarasinorum
The term kleptoparasitism is used to describe the
stealing of nest material or prey of one animal by another. Foraging
and food handling behaviors of social spiders increase the
vulnerability to kleptoparasitism. Kleptoparasites namely four species
of spiders and two species of ants were observed and collected from the
nest and webs of Stegodyphus sarasinorum Karsch 1891. The ants were found to be the most dominant among them. The influence of a facultative kleptoparasitic ant, Oecophylla smaragdina on the foraging behavior of S. sarasinorum
was studied and the experiments suggested that the web building
behavior was influenced by the exposure to ants. However, exposure to
ants caused no significant effect on the prey capture, handling time of
prey and prey ingestion behaviors of this spider.



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