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Assassin Bug Analysis

Decent Essays

News Analysis Assignment #1: Aggressive Mimicry in Assassin Bugs The news article I have chosen is titled “Assassin bug lures spiders by mimicking prey”1. In this article, author Mark Kniver states that researchers observed assassin bugs (Stenolemus bituberus) preying on spiders by mimicking prey trapped in a web through a behavior called “aggressive mimicry”1. Stenolemus bituberus will first disturb one of the strands of a spider’s web, tricking the spider into thinking that it has caught a bug. As the spider approaches the source of the disturbance, the assassin bug thrusts forward with its beak, and stabs the spider1. Another observed strategy that Stenolemus bituberus uses to catch its prey is through careful “stalking” of the spiders, …show more content…

When examining the frequency and duration of the web vibrations being produced by Stenolemus bituberus and the prey, the researchers observed that the assassin bugs created web vibrations similar to the low-amplitude web movements generated by exhausted prey. Additionally, the researchers found that the assassin bugs never generated the distinctive vibration caused by prey landing on the web, nor did they create the high amplitude long duration web vibrations caused by the wing beats of struggling prey2. They also found that prey continuously generated high amplitude vibrations as they struggled in the web, while the leaf only generated one large wavelength from its initial impact2.The researchers also found that the spiders generally had no response to the leaf, and that the female spiders responded to the vibrations of the courting male by assuming a copulatory stance2. However, the courting male spiders generated a repeated web vibration not observed from the other forms web stimuli, suggesting a method by which female spiders discriminate courting male spiders from the other web

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