“‘Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the spider to the fly; ‘’T’is the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.’”
English poet Mary Howitt’s The Spider and the Fly does not tell the half of it. Of course, spiders are happy to devour flies, but their appetites sometimes go beyond mere insects.
Researchers documented this wide-ranging palate in a study published on Wednesday detailing how at least two dozen species of spiders on every continent except Antarctica eat small freshwater fish that often exceed them in size.
Photo: Reuters
Scientists have long known that some spiders consume fish, but the study — considered the first systematic review of the topic — showed that the practice is far more common and geographically widespread than previously understood.
“Fish may represent a ‘big-ticket item’ in the nutritional budget of semi-aquatic spiders,” said zoologist Martin Nyffeler, of the University of Basel in Switzerland, who led the study, which was published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
“Fish meat is high-quality prey regarding protein content and caloric value,” Nyffeler said. “Feeding on fish may be particularly advantageous during the mating period, when the elevated energy and protein requirements of gravid [pregnant] female spiders require increased food intake, or at times of limited availability of invertebrate prey.”
The spiders employ potent neurotoxins and enzymes to kill and digest fish. Semi-aquatic spiders — able to swim, dive and even walk on the water surface — lurk at the edges of shallow streams, lakes, ponds or swamps. They often anchor their hind legs to a stone or plant, with their front legs ready for the ambush at the water’s surface.
After the spider snares a fish, it drags it to a dry place like a rock or tree trunk to begin the feeding process: pumping digestive enzymes into the fish and sucking out the dissolved tissue like a milkshake.
“It takes a spider usually many hours to devour a fish until nothing is left but bones and scales,” Nyffeler said.
Fish-catching is largely limited to warmer climates. The Florida wetlands and neighboring regions are a particular hotspot, with mosquitofish in large numbers.
The researchers said at least 18 spider species from five families have been observed catching fish in the wild. And six more species, including some from three other families of spiders, have been documented doing it under laboratory conditions.
About 30 species of fish ranging from 2cm to 6cm long have been observed being captured by spiders in the wild.
In North America, the species Dolomedes triton frequently catches fish. In Australia, the species Dolomedes facetus hunts goldfish from ponds in suburban gardens.
Fish are not the only small vertebrates that spiders include on the menu. Some have been known to eat frogs, toads, salamanders, lizards, snakes, mice, rats, bats and birds, Nyffeler said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the