Brief Communications
Nature 426, 30 (6 November 2003) | doi:10.1038/426030a
Arachnology: Scavenging by brown recluse spiders
Jamel S. Sandidge1
The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is a threat to humans and establishes huge populations in urban habitats throughout central North America1, 2 — more than 2,000 of these spiders were recorded in a single house in Kansas3. What do these spiders eat in order to build and maintain such numbers? Here I combine laboratory prey-choice experiments with observations of the behaviour of L. reclusa in houses to show that this spider prefers dead, scavenged prey over live prey. This finding may explain how immense populations of these spiders can flourish even in adverse conditions.
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Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA
Email: spidermn@ku.edu