The Effects Of Personalities On Predator-Prey Interactions Between A Spider-Eating Jumping Spider Portia Sp.(Araneae: Salticidae) And Its Prey Spider Achaearanea Tepidariorum(Araneae: Theridiidae)

Predator-prey interactions are an important part of ecological communities.Personality or behavioural types(BTs),consistent inter-individual differences in behaviour across time and context is known to influence the interactions between predators and prey.While personality or behavioural syndromes((i.e.,a suite of correlated behaviours)are extensively studied in a few species of social spiders,only few jumping spiders have been tested for their personalities.In this thesis,I used a specialized araneophagous(spider-eating)jumping spider,Portia sp.indet.(Araneae:Salticidae)as predators and a house spider Achaearanea tepidariorum(Araneae:Theridiidae)as prey,to test the effects of personalities of both predators and prey on the predator's foraging performance and the prey's anti-predator performance.In order to understand the personalities of Portia sp.indet better,in Chapter 2,I assessed behavioural types with a focus on boldness,aggressiveness,the duration from refuge to the new milieu(refuge-new),the farthest distances they reached(distance),and the correlations of these behavioural types.Results showed that Portia sp.indet.females exhibited consistent inter-individual differences in boldness,refuge-new,distance,while males only exhibited boldness and refuge-new.Furthermore,mass was correlated with boldness when both females and males considered together,while in mass of females or males was correlated with refuge-new.However,none of the behavioural types were correlated with each other.In Chapter 3,I tested the boldness level of A.tepidariorum,my results showed that they exhibited consistent interindividual differences in boldness,which was not significantly correlated with their mass.In Chapter 4,I used predation trials and employed seven predator performance index and one prey anti-predator performance to test the effects of boldness of both predators and prey on predator-prey interactions.I found that Portia sp.indet.boldness or A.tepidariorum boldness had no significant effects on the success and accuracy(i.e.,number of attacks)of prey capture.Neither the personalities of both predators and prey nor their mass affected the web invasion,and latency to pluck.However,prey boldness but not predator boldness or both influenced predator preycatching strategy(pluck),number of plucks,latency to capture prey successfully,the predator's response after prey react to pluck,and anti-predator performance(prey's reaction to pluck).Apart from boldness,prey mass influenced a predator's foraging performance in terms of strategy(pluck)used,latency to capture prey successfully,number of plucks and the predator's response after prey react to pluck.While predator mass influenced the number of plucks,the predator's response after prey's reaction to pluck,and prey's reaction to pluck.Furthermore,prey's reaction to pluck affected a predator's response after prey's reaction to pluck,and the strategy(both pluck and web invasion)used influenced the latency to capture prey successfully.The interaction of between predator mass and prey mass also influenced the strategy(pluck)used.Therefore,this study demonstrated prey personality but not predator personality plays an important role in predator-prey interactions between Portia sp.indet.and A.tepidariorum.