Floral spatial morphological characteristics preferences facilitate mating and predation in flower-visiting spiders
Description
Numerous flower visitors exhibit varying preferences for floral characteristics, a topic that has been extensively studied. As one group of flower visitors, the preferences of spiders for flower color have garnered attention; however, their preferences for the spatial morphological characteristics of flowers remain largely unexplored. This study investigated the preferences of flower-visiting crab spiders (Ebrechtella tricuspidata) for flower size, petal density, and symmetry, and explored the underlying reasons from the courtship and predation. The results indicated that male spiders preferred larger flowers, while females favored densely petaled flowers and symmetrical flowers. Additionally, males exhibited a stronger preference for females on larger flowers than on smaller ones. However, no significant differences were observed in males mating selection based on petal density and symmetry. Furthermore, consistent with spider preferences, potential prey, such as houseflies and bees, also showed a significant preference for larger, densely petaled, and symmetrical flowers in visitation experiments. We propose that prey preferences for floral characteristics may be a primary factor influencing spider preferences. We hypothesize that the flower characteristics influence insect visitation preferences, which may extend to third trophic level predators, thereby determining the preferences of flower-visiting spiders.