|
|
Reactions of spider and insect predators to aposematic prey
Koláčná, Klára ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Sentenská, Lenka (referee)
Aposematic prey advertises its unprofitability to predators by means of warning signals, which can be visual, chemical, acoustic or combined with each other as multimodal signals. Most experimental studies dealing with responses of predators to aposematic prey focus on vertebrates, especially birds. This thesis focuses on the most frequently tested groups of terrestrial arthropod predators - spiders, dragonflies, and mantises - supplemented by less tested insect predators. Most of the tested arthropod predators are able to learn to avoid noxious aposematic prey based on either visual, olfactory or acoustic signals depending on their perception. Some can remember this aversion for several days. Only in case of jumping spiders, ability to generalise previous experience with a particular prey to similar prey has been confirmed. Prey chemical defenses most often consist of cardenolides or aldehydes, which proved to be aversive for tested arthropod predators.
|
guest ::
RSS feed.