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DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE
REPORTS
|
No. 3, July 2, 2016
20
th
International Congress of Arachnology
used burst speed as a performance measure to determine if
unrelated taxa of spiders within the same functional group
perform in a similar way, thus elucidating how morphol-
ogy helps shape the fitness landscape of spiders. Results
suggest that performance is similar within functional
groups, therefore, revealing convergence among guilds.
Keywords: morphology, ecomorphology, performance,
guilds, ecology
Oral presentation
Biology, behaviour and physiological
adaptations of the termitophagous spider
genus
Ammoxenus
Charles R. Haddad
1
, Stano Pekár
2
, Anna S. Dippenaar-
Schoeman
3,4
, Lenka Petráková
2
, Marek Brabec
5
, Eva
Líznarová
2
, Lenka Sentenská
2
, William O.C. Symondson
6
1
Department of Zoology & Entomology, University
of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa;
2
Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of
Sciences, Masaryk University, Kotlárská 2, 611 37
Brno, Czech Republic;
3
Biosystematics: Arachnology,
ARC–Plant Protection Research Institute, Private Bag
X134, Queenswood 0121, South Africa;
4
Department of
Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria
0001, South Africa
5
Department of Nonlinear Model-
ling, Institute of Computer Science, The Czech Academy
of Sciences, Pod Vodarenskou vezi 2, Praha 8, 182
07 Prague, Czech Republic;
6
Cardiff School of Biosci-
ences, Cardiff University, Sir Martin Evans Building,
Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3AX, United Kingdom
haddadcr@ufs.ac.zaThe spider genus
Ammoxenus
(Araneae: Ammoxenidae)
is endemic to southern Africa. Research since the 1970s
has shown these spiders to feed on termites, although
their degree of dietary specialization has, until recently,
been unconfirmed.
Ammoxenus
are often very common
in grassland and savanna habitats in South Africa where
harvester termites are locally abundant.
Ammoxenus
have
various morphological and behavioural adaptations to
feeding on termites, including rastellate chelicerae, pseu-
dosegmented tarsi, and high speed running and digging
behaviour. The presence of a sandy substrate, particularly
areas with soft sand, are critical for the effective capture
of termite prey and subsequent digging to feed. A pitfall
survey in grassland showed that
A. amphalodes
activity
density was strongly correlated to that of
Hodotermes
mossambicus
, but not to
Trinervitermes trinervoides
.
Although narrowly associated with
H. mossambicus
as
prey,
A. amphalodes
also utilize sand mounds of other
organisms, including ants and moles, for retreat construc-
tion. Recent studies using next generation sequencing
showed that 99.8% of sequences extracted from the guts of
A. amphalodes
belonged to
H. mossambicus
termites; this
in spite of the presence of other termites (
Odontotermes
sp. and
T. trinervoides
) and arthropods in the study area.
Juveniles had a significantly greater diversity of prey
sequences than adults, although both males and females
continued to feed on
H. mossambicus
as adults. Analysis
of venom protein profiles shows that
A. amphalodes
pos-
sesses a much more limited number of proteins when
compared to euryphagous spiders, providing evidence
supporting a stenophagous diet on termites. We briefly
describe several future studies that will investigate other
aspects of
Ammoxenus
biology to support the evolution of
stenophagy in this group of termitophagous predators.
Keywords: Diet, termite, stenophagy, burrowing, feeding,
phenology, NGS
Poster presentation
First records and potential range of inva-
sive
Badumna longinqua
in South Africa
Charles R. Haddad
1
, Cor J. Vink
2,3
1
Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of
the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa;
2
Canterbury
Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand
3
Department of
Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand
haddadcr@ufs.ac.zaBadumna longinqua
(Araneae: Desidae) is a web-
building spider indigenous to eastern and southern
Australia, but has been introduced to several countries
in South America, as well as the U.S.A. (California and
Hawaii), Germany, Japan and New Zealand. In this study
we review the occurrence of the species from South
Africa, from which it was recently recorded for the first