Ants are more than just convenience food to young spiders
Thursday, February 12, 2015 - 13:30
in Biology & Nature
Southern European spiders are genetically programmed to prefer harvester ants. Harvester ants are more than just a convenient snack for the southern European spider, Euryopis episinoides. The young spiderlings innately have a nose for these ants. Euryopis episinoides is a tiny, 3-mm-long spider that only catches ants - in particular members of the Messor group of which there are more than 100 species. Conveniently laying her egg sacks close to such ant nests is about as much parental care as a female Euryopis episinoides spider gives to her offspring. Once hatched, the spiderlings fend for themselves.