Predators appear to be less frequently specialised (ie adapted to restricted diet) on their
prey than herbivores, parasites or parasitoids. Here, we critically evaluate contemporary …

Incorporation of fossils into biogeographic studies can have a profound effect on the
conclusions that result, particularly when fossil ranges are nonoverlapping with extant …

Stenophagy (narrow diet breadth) represents an extreme of trophic specialization in
carnivores, but little is known about the forces driving its evolution. We used spiders, the …

Arachnida represent a hyperdiverse group of terrestrial arthropods. Although arachnids are
mostly predators, they often fall prey to other predators. Here, the diversity of enemies and …

The spider fang is a natural injection needle, hierarchically built from a complex composite
material comprising multiscale architectural gradients. Considering its biomechanical …

A number of different generalist (polyphagous) predators occur in agroecosystems. Yet their
biocontrol potential has been little investigated in detail. Philodromus species …

Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain the evolution of inaccurate mimicry.
Here we investigated the novel hypothesis that inaccurate mimicry (in color and shape) is …

Phylogenetic relationships among archaeid spider lineages, as well as the placement of
archaeids within the Araneomorphae, present a problem in the systematics of spiders. We …

Spiders are the most important terrestrial predators among arthropods. Their ecological
success is reflected by a high biodiversity and the conquest of nearly every terrestrial …

Specialist true predators are expected to exhibit higher capture efficiencies for the capture of
larger and dangerous prey than generalist predators due to their possession of specialized …