Abstract
The orb-weaving spider Nephila edulis incorporates into its web a band of decaying animal and plant matter. While earlier studies demonstrate that larger spiders utilise these debris bands as caches of food, the presence of plant matter suggests additional functions. When organic and plastic items were placed in the webs of N. edulis, some of the former but none of the latter were incorporated into the debris band. Using an Y-maze olfactometer, we show that sheep blowflies Lucilia cuprina are attracted to recently collected debris bands, but that this attraction does not persist over time. These data reveal an entirely novel foraging strategy, in which a sit-and-wait predator attracts insect prey by utilising the odours of decaying organic material. The spider’s habit of replenishing the debris band may be necessary to maintain its efficacy for attracting prey.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Melanie Archer, Therésa Jones, Birgit Griffiths, Marie Herberstein and several referees for their helpful insights; John Mackenzie and Ayscha Hill-Williams of the Department of Genetics for providing the blowflies; and the ARC (grant DP0209680) for financial support.
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Bjorkman-Chiswell, B.T., Kulinski, M.M., Muscat, R.L. et al. Web-building spiders attract prey by storing decaying matter. Naturwissenschaften 91, 245–248 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-004-0524-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-004-0524-x