Yu Guocheng, Li Zichang, Zhao Yao, Liu Jie, Peng Yu
Hubei Key Laboratory of Regional Development and Environmental Response, College of Resources and Environmental Science, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China.
State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering and Centre for Behavioural Ecology and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China.
Insects. 2022 Nov 1;13(11):1009. doi: 10.3390/insects13111009.
Ethanol (ETOH) affects many animals' behaviour in nature; for example, honeybees become more aggressive after consuming ETOH. In previous studies, scientists have used honeybees and fruit flies as models to determine if they showed a strong preference to ETOH. Moreover, ETOH could affect their locomotion and learning abilities. However, whether and how ETOH affects spiders is unclear as of yet. In this study, we used empirical experiments to determine whether spiders showed preference for ETOH, as well as the potential benefits of spiders choosing ETOH, by using a common spider, , which has a high probability of contacting ETOH in their habitat. In our experiment, showed a significant preference for ETOH. Although the success rate of the first attack was significantly decreased when were exposed to ETOH, they had a significantly higher predation probability, since fruit flies also showed a significant preference for ETOH. Our findings suggested that ETOH could affect the prey capture efficiency of and indicated that spiders might evolve to use ETOH to locate a potential hunting place. Taken together, our findings suggested that evolved to adapt to ETOH and could use it as a signal of the presence of food resources.
乙醇（ETOH）会影响自然界中许多动物的行为；例如，蜜蜂在摄入乙醇后会变得更具攻击性。在先前的研究中，科学家们以蜜蜂和果蝇为模型来确定它们是否对乙醇表现出强烈偏好。此外，乙醇会影响它们的运动和学习能力。然而，截至目前，乙醇是否以及如何影响蜘蛛尚不清楚。在本研究中，我们通过实证实验来确定蜘蛛是否对乙醇有偏好，以及蜘蛛选择乙醇的潜在益处，我们使用了一种常见的蜘蛛，它在其栖息地有很高的概率接触到乙醇。在我们的实验中， 对乙醇表现出显著偏好。虽然当 暴露于乙醇时首次攻击的成功率显著降低，但它们的捕食概率显著更高，因为果蝇也对乙醇表现出显著偏好。我们的研究结果表明，乙醇会影响 的猎物捕获效率，并表明蜘蛛可能已经进化到利用乙醇来定位潜在的狩猎地点。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明 已经进化到适应乙醇，并可以将其用作食物资源存在的信号。
