Portia labiata
| Portia labiata | |
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| P. labiata from Hong Kong | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Infraorder: | Araneomorphae |
| Family: | Salticidae |
| Genus: | Portia |
| Species: | P. labiata |
| Binomial name | |
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Portia labiata (Thorell, 1887) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Portia labiata is a jumping spider (family Salticidae) found in Sri Lanka, India, southern China, Burma (Myanmar), Malaysia, Singapore, Java, Sumatra and the Philippines. In this medium-sized jumping spider, the front part is orange-brown and the back part is brownish. The conspicuous main eyes provide vision more acute than a cat's during the day and 10 times more acute than a dragonfly's, and this is essential in P. labiata′s navigation, hunting and mating.
The genus Portia has been called "Eight-legged Cats", as their hunting tactics are as versatile and adaptable as a lion's. All members of Portia have instinctive hunting tactics for their most common prey, but often can improvise by trial and error against unfamiliar prey or in unfamiliar situations, and then remember the new approach. While most jumping spiders prey mainly on insects and by active hunting, females of Portia also build webs to catch prey directly and sometimes join their own webs on to those of web-based spiders. Both females and males prefer web spiders as prey, followed by other jumping spiders, and finally insects. In all cases females are more effective predators than males.
Populations from Los Baños and from Sagada, both in the Philippines, have slightly different hunting tactics. In laboratory tests, Los Baños P. labiatas rely more on trial and error than Sagada P. labiatas in finding ways to vibrate the prey's web and thus lure or distract the prey. Around Los Baños the web-building Scytodes pallida, which preys on jumping spiders, is very abundant, and spits a sticky gum on prey and potential threats. A P. labiata from Los Baños instinctively detours round the back of S. pallida while with plucking the web in a way that makes the prey believe the threat is in front of it. In areas where S. pallida is absent, the local members of P. labiata do not use this combination of deception and detouring for a stab in the back. In a test to explore P. labiata′s ability to solve a novel problem, a miniature lagoon was set up, and the spiders had to find the best way to cross it. Specimens from Sagada, in the mountains, almost always repeated the first option they tried, even when that was unsuccessful. When specimens from Los Baños, beside a lake, were unsuccessful the first time, about three quarters switched to another option.
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Wikipedia