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Members of the spider families Thomisidae, Salticidae, Miturgidae, Anyphaenidae, and Corinnidae have been observed on floral and extrafloral nectaries of plants, where they are presumably feeding on nectar. Nectar feeding is a phenomenon that has long intrigued biologists. However, few studies have focused on the effect of nectar on biological characteristics of these spiders. The aim of this study was to determine whether crab spiders, Ebrechtella tricuspidata (Fabricius) (Araneae: Thomisidae), show an active preference for honey solution (a simulated nectar source) and to test the effect of honey solution on the survival and development time of spiderlings and the fecundity of adult E. tricuspidata. The results showed that the number of females feeding on the 10, 20, and 30% honey solution was significantly higher than those feeding on water alone, and there was no difference in the number of females feeding on the three concentrations of honey solution. Significantly more E. tricuspidata preferred feeding on the 20% honey solution, and they spent significantly more time feeding on 20% honey solution than on water, regardless of whether they were males or females, adults or spiderlings. Ingestion of honey solution significantly increased the survival and shortened the development time of E. tricuspidata. Female spiders that fed on honey solution had a shorter pre-oviposition period and laid more eggs than those given only water. Our results suggest that nectar could be a high-quality supplementary food to maintain normal growth and metabolism in spiderlings and adult female spiders in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Wolbachia endosymbiont of spiders has not been extensively examined. In order to investigate the distribution, evolutionary history, and reproductive phenotype of Wolbachia in spiders in China, we tested 11 geographic populations of Hylyphantes graminicola. Wolbachia infection has been detected in each population. 10 Wolbachia strains have been characterized by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Phylogenetic analyses indicated that eight Wolbachia strains in H. graminicola belonged to supergroup B, and two belonged to supergroup A. No correlation existed between Wolbachia diversity and host's geographic distance. The significant correlation was observed between pairwise distance of H. graminicola COI and genetic divergence of associated Wolbachia strains. We also found that Wolbachia infection frequencies in hosts varied over geographic space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiders, as predators of insects and other invertebrates, are an important part of the natural enemies, and they are recognized as an important biological control agent. Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus, 1758), the diamondback moth (DBM), is a well-known and destructive insect pest of brassicaceous crops worldwide. Here, we analyzed the functional responses of four spiders (Araneae) - Ebrechtella tricuspidata (Fabricius, 1775) (Thomisidae), Pardosa laura (Karsch, 1879) (Lycosidae), Pardosa astrigera (Koch, 1878) (Lycosidae), and Pardosa pseudoannulata (Bösenberg & Strand, 1906) (Lycosidae) - on P. xylostella larvae. We also analyzed intraspecific disturbances in the predation reaction and the intensity of scrambling competition of the spiders to P. xylostella larvae. Our results demonstrated that the functional responses of four spiders of different genera were in line with the Holling II model. Two Lycosidae spiders (P. astrigera and P. pseudoannulata) had the potential to control P. xylostella, and female and male spiders that belonged to the same species had different functional responses to P. xylostella. The functional responses of female predation of P. astrigena, P. laura, and P. pseudoannulata was stronger than the males, but male E. tricuspidatus had stronger functional responses to predation than females. We used the Hassell model to describe the intraspecific disturbance experiments of four spiders. There were intraspecific disturbances in the predation reactions of spiders, indicating that the predation ratio of spiders decreased in relation to the increase of its density, and with the increase of spider density, the intensity of scrambling competition of the spider increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]