Post‐Immobilization Wrapping of Preyby Lycosid Spiders of theHerbaceous Stratum

The use of silk or wrapping prey is generally associated with those spiders that construct trapping webs; nevertheless, there are indications in the literature that wandering spiders sometimes use silk for this purpose. In some of the latter cases the silk is applied after the prey has been subdued by biting, a use corresponding to that of the diguetid and linyphiid web-weavers studied by Eberhard (1967). Post-immobilization wrapping in the latter two families was suggested to prevent the prey from falling out of the web during subsequent attacks (ibid.), and in araneid spiders to have the same and additional roles, depending on species and prey size (Robinson et al., I969). The function of this behavior in the non-web-weaving ctenids (Melchers, I963), theraphosids (Eberhard, I967), and lycosids (Rovner, I97I) remained unknown and was the subject of the present study. Our indings suggested that post-immobilization wrapping by wandering spiders serves the same general unction that it probably does in web-weavers--to prevent prey from dropping rom the spider’s elevated location down to the ground whenever it is released rom the chelicerae during (ceding, grooming, or subsequent capture attempts.