Two spider-boarding mantispids, Mantispa uhleri Banks and Mantispa pulchella (Banks), were found to be partitioning available spider egg resources in an Iowa woods. Hunting spiders were collected by three different techniques from three different microhabitats. These included sweeping during the fall from low-lying foliage near the edge of the woods (which yielded a variety of small anyphaenids, salticids and thomisids as well as some larger pisaurids), collecting beneath the bark of dead trees during the winter (which yielded specimens of the philodromid Philodromus vulgaris, the salticid Platycryptus undatus, and the gnaphosid Herypyllus ecclesiasticus), and head lamping for ground-inhabiting spiders during the spring (which yielded lycosids belonging to the genus Schizocosa). Both mantispid species were found aboard the foliage-inhabiting salticids and thomisids. Mantispa pulchella predominated on the anyphaenids while M. uhleri was more common on the pisaurids. The spiders overwintering beneath tree bark were utilized primarily by M. uhleri. In fact, P. vulgaris had the highest mantispid infestation rate with over 70% of subadults collecting carrying at least one larva of M. uhleri. No mantispids were found on any of the lycosids. The present survey complements a recently published study conducted in a similar woods in Illinois that involved resource partitioning between M. uhleri and Climaciella brunnea (Say). Mantispids are far more common than has been previously supposed and are likely an important factor in spider population dynamics and the evolution of spider behavior.
Species 1: Neuroptera Mantispidae Mantispa uhleri
Species 2: Neuroptera Mantispidae Mantispa pulchella
Keywords: phoresy
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