Efficacy and efficiency of new Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis and Bacillus sphaericus formulations against Afrotropical anophelines in Western Kenya

Publication Type

Journal Article

Journal Name

Royal Society Open Science

Publication Date

5-1-2015

Abstract

Using Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider (Salticidae), we investigate how nectar meals function in concert with predation specifically at the juvenile stage between emerging from the egg sac and the first encounter with prey. Using plants and using artificial nectar consisting of sugar alone or sugar plus amino acids, we show that the plant species (Lantana camara, Ricinus communis, Parthenium hysterophorus), the particular sugars in the artificial nectar (sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose), the concentration of sugar (20%, 5%, 1%) and the duration of prefeeding fasts (3 days, 6 days) influence the spider’s prey-capture proficiency on the next day after the nectar meal. However, there were no significant effects of amino acids. Our findings suggest that benefits from nectar feeding are derived primarily from access to particular sugars, with fructose and sucrose being the most beneficial, glucose being intermediate andmaltose being no better than a water-only control.

Keywords

Evarcha culicivora, Lantana camara, Nectarivory, Parthenium hysterophorus, Ricinus communis, Salticidae

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