spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif Propose a Workshop for 2011 spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online May 29, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 1869-1875 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.028126
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Cross, F. R.
Right arrow Articles by Jackson, R. R.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Cross, F. R.
Right arrow Articles by Jackson, R. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Cross-modality priming of visual and olfactory selective attention by a spider that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood

Fiona R. Cross1,* and Robert R. Jackson1,2

1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
2 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Thomas Odhiambo Campus, Mbita Point, Kenya

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: frc16{at}student.canterbury.ac.nz)

Accepted 18 March 2009

Evarcha culicivora, a jumping spider from East Africa, specialises in feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood by choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as preferred prey. Previous studies have shown that this predator can identify its preferred prey by sight alone and also by odour alone. Here we investigate how vision and olfaction work together. Our findings show that, for E. culicivora, cross-modality priming in the context of preying on blood-carrying mosquitoes works in two directions. However, we found no evidence of priming in the context of predation on less preferred prey (midges). When the spider's task was, by sight alone, to find a cryptic lure, it found mosquitoes significantly more often when the odour of mosquitoes was present than when this odour was not present. When the spider's task was to find masked odour, it found mosquitoes significantly more often after previously seeing mosquitoes than when it had not previously seen mosquitoes. When the spider's task was to find conspicuous lures or unmasked odour, the identity of the priming stimulus appeared to be irrelevant. Results were similar regardless of the spider's previous experience with prey and suggest that E. culicivora has an innate inclination to adopt vision-based search images specifically for mosquitoes when primed by mosquito odour and to adopt olfaction-based search images specifically when primed by seeing mosquitoes.

Key words: Salticidae, cognition, olfaction, predation, search images, vision


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2009