Morse Douglass H
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Box G-W, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA Fax: +1-401-863-2166; e-mail:
Oecologia. 1998 Jun;115(1-2):184-187. doi: 10.1007/s004420050506.
Predators that inject prey with proteolytic enzymes, thereby breaking down their tissues for subsequent ingestion, run the risk that desiccation will hinder eventual retrieval of resources from these prey. Wounds made in capture might exacerbate this problem. However, desiccation rates of small syrphid flies Toxomerusmarginatus (Diptera: Syrphidae) killed by juvenile crab spiders Misumena vatia (Araneae: Thomisidae) and intact dead syrphid flies did not differ over the normal period of feeding, though desiccation rates in shade and sun differed several-fold. Neither the size of the spider (and presumably the size of the wounds it inflicted) nor the location of the wounds on the flies' bodies affected desiccation rates. Thus, this tactic of prey handling does not exact an added processing cost on Misumena.
向猎物注射蛋白水解酶从而分解其组织以便后续摄取的捕食者，面临着干燥会阻碍最终从这些猎物获取资源的风险。捕获过程中造成的伤口可能会加剧这一问题。然而，被幼年蟹蛛米苏美娜（Misumena vatia）（蜘蛛目：蟹蛛科）杀死的小型食蚜蝇边缘毒蝇（Toxomerus marginatus）（双翅目：食蚜蝇科）以及完整的死食蚜蝇在正常取食期间的干燥速率并无差异，尽管在阴凉处和阳光下的干燥速率相差数倍。蜘蛛的大小（以及推测它造成的伤口大小）和伤口在蝇类身体上所处的位置均未影响干燥速率。因此，这种处理猎物的策略并未给米苏美娜带来额外的处理成本。
