...Scott M. Boback; Katelyn J. McCann; Kevin A. Wood; Patrick M. McNeal; Emmett L. Blankenship; Charles F. Zwemer ABSTRACT As legless predators, snakes are unique in their ability to immobilize and kill their prey through the process of constriction, and yet how this pressure incapacitates...

... to the next. Although this idea is central to interpreting the fitness consequences of adaptive plasticity, empirical data on costs of plasticity are scarce. In Australian tiger snakes, larger relative head size enhances maximal ingestible prey size on islands containing large prey. The trait arises via...

...James H. Fullard; Matt E. Jackson; David S. Jacobs; Chris R. Pavey; Chris J. Burwell SUMMARY The Australian noctuid moth, Speiredonia spectans shares its subterranean day roosts (caves and abandoned mines) with insectivorous bats,some of which prey upon it. The capacity of this moth to survive...

...), well known as an adult chemical defense, stimulates larval escape to refuges. Although they are cannibals,adult newts feed preferentially on worms ( Eisenia rosea ) over conspecific young. Hence, larval avoidance reactions to TTX are suppressed in the presence of odor from these alternative prey...

... and arginine concentrations are especially high within the tissues and blood/hemolymph of marine and freshwater invertebrates(1–500 mmol kg –1 body mass)( Edwards, 1982 ; Dooley et al., 2002 ; Hiong,2004), including common prey (insects, worms and snails) of adult newts( Stebbins, 1972 ; Hanson et al., 1994...

... streams of auditory information be processed simultaneously? Evidence from the gleaning bat Antrozous pallidus. J. Comp. Physiol. A 189 , 843 -855. Bates, D. L. and Fenton, M. B. ( 1990 ). Aposematism or startle? Predators learn their responses to the defenses of prey. Can. J. Zool . 68 , 49 -52...

... by the swimming movements of a prey fish( Fundulus heteroclitus ), and the corresponding neural activity was quantified. Both spontaneously active and silent afferent fibers experienced an increase in neural firing as the prey approached the lateral line. Activity was evoked when the prey fish approached...

... during prey–predator interactions. To complement the physiological and anatomical studies with a necessary behavioral equivalent, we investigated encounters between juvenile crayfish and large dragonfly nymphs in freely behaving animals using a combination of high-speed video-recordings and measurements...

... of the prey with minimal body movement followed by an explosive C-or S-start lunge at the prey. Quantitative comparisons of animals in the five test groups indicate that, although vision is used in the initial acquisition of the prey, both vision and the lateral line system play important roles in determining...

...Duane P. Harland; Robert R. Jackson ABSTRACT Portia fimbriata from Queensland, Australia, is an araneophagic jumping spider (Salticidae) that includes in its predatory strategy a tactic (cryptic stalking) enabling it to prey effectively on a wide range of salticids from other genera. Optical cues...