Assassin bugs hunts spiders with vibrating tech
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For most insects, walking onto a spider's web and disturbing the sticky threads would be a very bad idea, Australian researchers however, on Wednesday uncovered the sophisticated vibrating techniques used by the assassin bug to draw the spider closer and ends in turning the spider into their own food in the spider's web.
The Proceedings of the Royal Society B paper conducted by Dr Anne Wignall and Associate Professor Phillip Taylor of Macquarie University in Sydney of Australia, released on Wednesday outlining the spider-eating assassin bug's (Stenolemus bituberus) vibrating technique, called aggressive mimicry.
To analyze the extent of its deception, Wignall and Taylor monitored the different vibrations created by male spiders, leaves, and two common prey animals: fruit-flies and aphids.
They found that the spiders responded to the bugs in the same way as they did to the fly or the aphid, and just as quickly. They always turned in the right direction, and approached the source of the vibrations most of the time.
According to Wignall, it was surprising to see how the bug can manage to finely control the vibrations. The insect can control the spider's responses, to slowly bring it closer.
Wignall added that the hunt can last for hours as the bugs slowly and carefully manipulate a spider's reactions.
"The assassin bug moves very carefully onto the (spider's) web and it begins plucking the silk with its forelegs," Wignall wrote in the paper that released on Wednesday.
"If the bug is not getting a reaction from the spider, it will move a little further onto the web, move around, pluck a little bit more. Once the spider begins approaching it will often stop signaling and the spider will approach very slowly because it's not getting signals any more."
Once the bug is within striking range, the assassin bug will tap the spider gently with its antennae once or twice as it moves into position over the body of the spider.
Then it grabs the spider really quickly and tightly with its forelegs and stabs it with its mouthparts, like a reinforced modified sharp straw.
"Usually the spider stops struggling within a few seconds. Then the bug starts to suck out the insides, kind of like a spider milkshake," Wignall said.
The next step in Wignall and Taylor's research is to look at the spider's decision making process.
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