Excited pyrilampos are made hostage by hungry spiders

Luminous bait attracts prey to spiders. It is the males that fall on the web, betrayed by a hope of mating that is just a fatal illusion.

A recent study revealed unusual behavior between night spiders Psekrus keywhich build the sheets in the shape of a soil. These spiders were filmed to capture pirilampos And keeping them stuck in their webs, without consuming them right away, to take advantage of their bioluminescent brightness as a gimmick for other prey.

The investigation, published on August 28 at the Journal of Animal Ecology, shows that “The signs of pirilampos, intended for sexual communication, are also beneficial for spiders, ”he said to the main author of the study, I-Min TSO, a researcher at the University of Tunghai.

According to the investigators, the spiders even check the state of the pyrilampos over an hour, a period that coincides with the duration of light emitted by the females of these bioluminescent scarab.

Practical experiences confirmed the hypothesis. The scientists put small LED lights to imitate the brightness of pyrilampos on artificial webs and compared them with non-light webs. The results were clear: the LED webs attracted three times more prey than control webs of control and managed to capture up to ten times more pyrilampos, according to the study on August 28 at the Journal of Animal Ecology.

The conclusions also show a curious distinction in the food behavior of these spiders. While other insects, such as moths, are immediately consumed, the pyrilampos remain stuck and intact until their light turns off, being only devoured. Most caught pyrilampos were male, suggesting that they will have confused the brightness with potential partners.

Unlike other predators who have developed their own bioluminescence, such as the peeing fish, these spiders seem to have found an ingenious way to explore others’ sexual signals. For scientists, this ability to manipulate different prey according to specific characteristics reinforces the idea that these spiders consciously distinguish the pyrilampos from other insects.