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Wolf spider feeding on Philautus cf. leucorhinus (PDF)
Gururaja K. V.

Higher vertebrates generally prey on lower vertebrates and it is a quite common phenomenon in the food chain. Very rarely, vertebrates do become prey for invertebrates, which are hierarchically at lower evolutionary lineage than the vertebrates. Here, I am illustrating one such incidence; where I could able capture the feeding of a wolf spider on a shrub frog Philautus cf. leucorhinus. It was 27 th July 2004, evening 5:30, after a brief shower for some time, I started searching for amphibians in the forest of Vatehalla, in the downstreams of Sharavathi River basin. All of a sudden, just a meter away from me, a Philautus species jumped and got caught by a wolf spider. Though initially the shrub frog struggled to come out of the catch, but with each wriggling the spider tightened its hold and made the frog immobile and a mute prey. Within next few minutes the frog was squeezed by the spider, though intact, but without life.

 

Photographs and Text
Gururaja K V
Energy and Wetlands Research Group,
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore – 560 012.
gururaj@ces.iisc.ernet.in