Hauling up a hefty meal: Long‐Jawed spider (Araneae, Tetragnathidae) uses silk lines to transport large prey vertically through the air in the absence of a web

Abstract

AbstractThe most well‐known use of silk among spiders is the formation of webs to capture flying prey. However, spiders have evolved many different foraging strategies involving silk, including the capture and subsequent manipulate of prey prior to consumption. Herein, I report on the use of silk lines by a long‐jawed spider from the Tetragnatha genus to move a large prey item vertically through the air. Field observations revealed a long‐jawed spider attaching multiple silk lines across the body of an adult dragonfly that had recently emerged from its final moult and attaching these threads to overlying vegetation to incrementally haul the prey item from the surface of a waterbody. My observations suggest that some Tetragnatha spiders are able to move large prey items that are much heavier then themselves using a series of silk lines that allow lift to be accomplished in a gradual and controlled manner. This is an interesting finding, given that other individuals from the same population were using web structures to passively catch much smaller, flying prey. This indicates that some Tetragnatha spiders not only participate in the mobile pursuit of prey but that they possess multiple foraging strategies that may allow them to exploit a larger number of prey types.