Bruce Matthew J, Heiling Astrid M, Herberstein Marie E
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Biol Lett. 2005 Sep 22;1(3):299-302. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2005.0307.
We are becoming increasingly aware of animal communication outside the range of human sensitivity. Web decorations are silk structures used by orb-web spiders to deceive prey and predators. However, despite the level of interest in these structures, their visibility to prey and predators has never, to our knowledge, been objectively assessed. Here, we use spectrophotometric analyses to show that the decorations of all five tested spider species are visible to honey bees and birds over short and long distances. Furthermore, the discoid decorations of one species may provide some protection against arthropod predators. However, these decorations are inefficient at camouflaging the spider against birds, despite the overlap between the spider's body and web decoration.
我们越来越意识到人类感知范围之外的动物交流。蛛网装饰是圆蛛用来欺骗猎物和捕食者的丝质结构。然而，尽管人们对这些结构兴趣浓厚，但据我们所知，它们对猎物和捕食者的可见性从未得到过客观评估。在此，我们通过分光光度分析表明，所有五种受试蜘蛛物种的装饰在短距离和长距离内对蜜蜂和鸟类都是可见的。此外，一个物种的盘状装饰可能会为抵御节肢动物捕食者提供一些保护。然而，尽管蜘蛛身体与蛛网装饰存在重叠，但这些装饰在将蜘蛛伪装起来以躲避鸟类方面效率低下。
