Discovery of a monophagous true predator, a specialist termite-eating spider (Araneae: Ammoxenidae).

ABSTRACT: True predators are characterised by capturing a number of prey items during their lifetime and by being generalists. Some true predators are facultative specialists, but very few species are stenophagous specialists that catch only a few closely related prey types. A monophagous true predator that would exploit a single prey species has not been discovered yet. Representatives of the spider family Ammoxenidae have been reported to have evolved to only catch termites. Here we tested the hypothesis that Ammoxenus amphalodes is a monophagous termite-eater capturing only Hodotermes mossambicus. We studied the trophic niche of A. amphalodes by means of molecular analysis of the gut contents using Next Generation Sequencing. We investigated their willingness to accept alternative prey and observ

SUBMITTER: Petrakova L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4566138 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature