"It's the act I enjoy more than any nourishment..."
-- Tarantulas, "The Web"
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Evarcha culicivora dines on an unlucky mosquito
Anything that's a predator to mosquitoes is okay by me!
I know in my heart that man is good.
That what is right will always eventually triumph.
And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.
- Ronald Reagan
-- Tarantulas, "The Web"
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Like the character Count Dracula and his real-life vampire bat counterparts, a small, East African jumping spider has a taste for blood, according to a recent study.
The spider, Evarcha culicivora, lacks the ability to pierce skin and to sip blood, so instead it feeds indirectly on blood by choosing, as its preferred meal, female mosquitoes that have just engorged themselves with a victim's blood.
The blood-hungry spider is the first predator ever identified that selects its prey based upon what the prey just ate. Similar to a protein shake, blood can be a highly nutritious drink that goes down smoothly.
"Perhaps blood is a ready-made nutrient-rich liquid meal for which minimal energy expenditure in terms of processing is needed," said Ximena Nelson, lead author of the study, published in a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Link
Evarcha culicivora dines on an unlucky mosquito
Anything that's a predator to mosquitoes is okay by me!
I know in my heart that man is good.
That what is right will always eventually triumph.
And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.
- Ronald Reagan
