Turner Joe, Vollrath Fritz, Hesselberg Thomas
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK, OX1 3PS.
Naturwissenschaften. 2011 Dec;98(12):1063-7. doi: 10.1007/s00114-011-0854-4. Epub 2011 Oct 13.
Wind has previously been shown to influence the location and orientation of spider web sites and also the geometry and material composition of constructed orb webs. We now show that wind also influences components of prey-catching behaviour within the web. A small wind tunnel was used to generate different wind speeds. Araneus diadematus ran more slowly towards entangled Drosophila melanogaster in windy conditions, which took less time to escape the web. This indicates a lower capture probability and a diminished overall predation efficiency for spiders at higher wind speeds. We conclude that spiders' behaviour of taking down their webs as wind speed increases may therefore not be a response only to possible web damage.
先前的研究表明，风会影响蜘蛛网的位置和方向，以及所构建的圆网的几何形状和材料组成。我们现在发现，风还会影响蜘蛛网上捕食猎物行为的各个组成部分。我们使用一个小型风洞来产生不同的风速。在有风的条件下，园蛛（Araneus diadematus）向被缠住的黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）移动得更慢，而果蝇逃脱蛛网所需的时间更短。这表明，在较高风速下，蜘蛛捕获猎物的概率较低，整体捕食效率也会降低。我们得出结论，随着风速增加，蜘蛛拆除蛛网的行为可能因此不只是对蛛网可能受损的一种反应。
