By Duncan Geere, Wired UK
A species of assassin bug has been found which creeps onto spiders’ webs and pretends to be prey, then devours the spider when it comes to investigate.
The creature, known to entomologists as Stenolemus bituberus, is the subject of a paper just published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B by Annie Wignall from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Wignall describes the exact process of “aggressive mimicry” by which the assassin bug stalks its target.
Most predators conceal themselves in order to capture prey, but the assassin bug takes the opposite approach — overtly advertising its presence in a way that entices its dinner to investigate. Web-building spiders use vibrations in their web to detect when it’s caught something, so they can go over, bind it in more web, and eat it.
The assassin bug slowly approaches the spider on its web, using its forelegs to pluck the silk threads in a manner that simulates the vibrations of a fly struggling after being caught. Wignall studied the behavior of the bugs, and found that the response of the spider to the predator was the same as its response to when a vinegar fly or aphid was caught in the web.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/assassin-bug-spider-prey/#more-40253
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