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Wolf spiders are abundant and voracious predators at the soil-plant interface in cotton crops. Among other prey, they attack late-instar larvae of the cotton bollworm  Helicoverpa  spp., an economically important pest. Consequently, wolf spiders in transgenic Bt cotton could provide significant biological control of Bt-resistant  Helicoverpa  larvae that descend to the soil to pupate. The predator-prey interactions between wolf spiders and  Helicoverpa  could, however, be constrained by the presence of alternative prey and intraguild predators. This study used laboratory enclosures to analyse the effect of alternative prey on predatory selection of the wolf spider  Tasmanicosa leuckartii  Thorell. The prey included another wolf spider  Hogna crispipes  Koch (potential intraguild predator), the ground cricket  Teleogryllus commodus  Walker (minor pest), and  Helicoverpa armigera  larvae (major pest). We tested if encounter rates, prey vulnerability, and prey nutritional content influenced the likelihood that a prey was attacked. In three-way food webs,  Tasmanicosa  encountered and attacked  Teleogryllus  and  Helicoverpa  in similar frequencies. However, in the presence of a competing intraguild predator and potential prey ( Hogna ) in a four-way food web,  Tasmanicosa  did not always attack  Teleogryllus  at first encounter, but still attacked  Helicoverpa  at each encounter.  Helicoverpa  (protein-poor) and  Hogna  (protein-rich) were consumed by  Tasmanicosa  in similar proportions, suggesting that  Tasmanicosa  might benefit from nutrient balance as an outcome of diverse prey in this food web. As  Teleogryllus  (protein rich) escapes quicker than  Helicoverpa  and  Hogna ,  Hogna  may be an easier protein-rich option than  Teleogryllus . Field surveys showed that while  Teleogryllus  was the most common prey, wolf spiders feed on diverse insect taxa, as well as other spiders. That  Tasmanicosa  readily attacked  Helicoverpa  larvae in the presence of alternative prey is an encouraging result that supports the potential of  Tasmanicosa  predation to assist in the control of Bt-resistant  Helicoverpa  larvae and thereby inhibit the proliferation and spread of resistance.

Does prey encounter and nutrient content affect prey selection in wolf spiders inhabiting Bt cotton fields?