Magazine
July-August 1998
July-August 1998
Volume: 86 Number: 4
This young male spider of the genus Portia plucked the threads of a web in just the right way to lure and then eat the orb-weaving resident (Zosis genicularis). Portia specializes in attracting and then attacking other spiders. In "Spider-Eating Spiders," Robert R. Jackson and R. Stimson Wilcox show that many species of Portia use a variety of predatory tactics, each specific to different cricumstances or different types of prey. For instance, as here, they invade the webs of other spiders and then use mimicry, detours and deception to capture the resident spider. (Photograph courtesy of Robert R. Jackson.)
In This Issue
- Art
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Communications
- Computer
- Economics
- Engineering
- Environment
- Evolution
- Mathematics
- Medicine
- Physics
- Policy
- Psychology
- Technology
Is Combustion of Plastics Desirable?
Bruce Piasecki, David Rainey, Kevin Fletcher
Economics Environment Policy
Plastic waste may provide a reliable and clean source of energy. It may not make sense to bury it
The First Digit Phenomenon
Theodore Hill
Mathematics
A century-old observation about an unexpected pattern in many numerical tables applies to the stock market, census statistics and accounting data
Animal Contests as Evolutionary Games
Mike Mesterton-Gibbons, Eldridge Adams
Evolution Psychology
Paradoxical behavior can be understood in the context of evolutionary stable strategies. The trick is to discover which game the animal is playing
Spider-Eating Spiders
Robert Jackson
Biology
Despite the small size of their brain, jumping spiders in the genus Portia outwit other spiders with hunting techniques that include trial and error
