Predatory and silk utilisation behaviour of gelotia sp. Indet. (Araneae: Salticidae: Spartaeinae), a web-invading aggressive mimic from Sri Lanka

Abstract

An undescribed species of Gelotia was studied in the field in Sri Lanka and in the laboratory, providing behavioural data for the first time for a species from this spartaeine genus. Because the Spartaeinae is regarded widely as a primitive subfamily of salticids, the results of this study are discussed in relation to salticid evolution. During cursorial predation, Gelotia, like all spartaeines studied, often omitted elements which are usually present in the predatory sequences of typical salticids. It also, unlike most salticids, tended to lunge at prey from close range rather than leap from afar. Gelotia also invaded webs of other spiders, practised aggressive mimicry by making specialised vibratory signals, and ate the resident spiders. Three other spartaeine genera, Breltus, Cyrba, and Portia, are the only other salticids known to make vibratory aggressive mimicry signals. Gelotia did not build a prey-catching web, although another two spartaeine genera, Portia and Spartaeus, are known to do so, but Gelotia, like Portia, hung up a dead leaf on which to rest and oviposit. © Crown 1990.