Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, 117543, Singapore.
Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 17;7:40734. doi: 10.1038/srep40734.
Predator-prey interactions play important roles in ecological communities. Personality, consistent inter-individual differences in behaviour, of predators, prey or both are known to influence inter-specific interactions. An individual may also behave differently under the same situation and the level of such variability may differ between individuals. Such intra-individual variability (IIV) or predictability may be a trait on which selection can also act. A few studies have revealed the joint effect of personality types of both predators and prey on predator foraging performance. However, how personality type and IIV of both predators and prey jointly influence predator foraging performance remains untested empirically. Here, we addressed this using a specialized spider-eating jumping spider, Portia labiata (Salticidae), as the predator, and a jumping spider, Cosmophasis umbratica, as the prey. We examined personality types and IIVs of both P. labiata and C. umbratica and used their inter- and intra-individual behavioural variation as predictors of foraging performance (i.e., number of attempts to capture prey). Personality type and predictability had a joint effect on predator foraging performance. Aggressive predators performed better in capturing unpredictable (high IIV) prey than predictable (low IIV) prey, while docile predators demonstrated better performance when encountering predictable prey. This study highlights the importance of the joint effect of both predator and prey personality types and IIVs on predator-prey interactions.
捕食者-猎物相互作用在生态群落中起着重要作用。已知捕食者、猎物或两者的行为个体间差异（即个性）会影响种间相互作用。个体在相同情况下也可能表现出不同的行为，并且这种可变性的水平可能在个体之间有所不同。这种个体内可变性（IIV）或可预测性可能是一个可以进行选择的特征。一些研究揭示了捕食者和猎物个性类型对捕食者觅食表现的共同影响。然而，捕食者和猎物的个性类型和 IIV 如何共同影响捕食者的觅食表现仍有待经验验证。在这里，我们使用专门的食蛛跳蛛 Portia labiata（跳蛛科）作为捕食者，以及跳蛛 Cosmophasis umbratica 作为猎物来解决这个问题。我们检查了 P. labiata 和 C. umbratica 的个性类型和 IIV，并将它们的个体间和个体内行为变化用作觅食表现（即捕捉猎物的尝试次数）的预测因子。个性类型和可预测性对捕食者的觅食表现有共同的影响。攻击性捕食者在捕捉不可预测的（高 IIV）猎物时表现更好，而温顺的捕食者在遇到可预测的猎物时表现更好。这项研究强调了捕食者和猎物个性类型和 IIV 的共同作用对捕食者-猎物相互作用的重要性。
