Vampire Spiders Home In on Female Mosquitoes

60-Second Science | More Science

Vampire spiders pick out female mosquitoes, based on viewing either a blood-filled abdomen or the female's distinctive antennae. Christopher Intagliata reports

June 8, 2012

More 60-Second Science

Subscribe via iTunes

How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect?s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they...

Read More??

Vampire spiders, as the name suggests, like blood. And they feast on blood-filled mosquitoes to get it. But only female mosquitoes suck blood. So how do spiders home in on the ladies?

To find out, researchers, well, took apart a bunch of mosquitoes. Then they mixed and matched body parts. They glued female heads onto male abdomens and male heads onto female bodies, some of which had blood-filled bellies. Then they let the spiders loose near these reassembled specimens, and watched to see which ones the spiders stalked.

As the researchers predicted, the spiders paid close attention to the abdomen, pouncing on the Frankensquitos filled with blood. But the spiders also kept an eye?or eight eyes?on the mosquitoes' heads. Males have lush, feathery antennae. The females aren't as showy. So if the spiders couldn't see the belly they went for female-headed skeeters, presumably for the better odds of scoring blood. The research is in the Journal of Experimental Biology. [Ximena J. Nelson and Robert R. Jackson: "The discerning predator: decision rules underlying prey classification by a mosquito-eating jumping spider"]

Previous studies have shown that blood meals give vampire spiders a perfume that's irresistible to the opposite sex. Now that?s what I call blood lust.

?Christopher Intagliata

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
?

barnaby barnaby the cabin in the woods the cabin in the woods trace adkins the darkest hour the darkest hour