Arácnido Taxonomy

  Differentiation in ant-eating spiders based on offensive and defensive exploitation of ants Abstract Ecological speciation via host-race has been documented in several herbivores and parasitoids. Analogous prey-race has recently been suggested to explain the diversity of specialised ant-eating spiders. Two sister species from the Iberian Peninsula, Zodarion alacre and Z. andalusiacum (Zodariidae), possess almost identical copulatory organs, but differ in body size and colouration. Zodarion spiders exploit different ant species offensively (as prey) and defensively (as mimetic models). Here we tested the hypothesis of prey-race diversification in these two species via offensive and defensive exploitation. We studied the diet of both species using metabarcoding, recorded their circadian activity in the field, investigated their mimetic similarity to ants, and modelled visual perception by potential predators. We found that both species feed on ants but Z. alacre hunted larger ant s...