2024年7月11日

捕蜘蛛, one of the largest spiders currently living in Susquehanna's Natural Sciences Center.学生s at 浩博体育app are collecting hundreds of spotted lanternflies and spiders to determine if the spiders will eat the invasive insect.

“目前, 对这些昆虫没有全面的控制计划, which are an issue of economic concern because they can destructively feed on at least 56 plant species, 包括具有重要商业价值的葡萄和核果,” 马太福音的人，香港大学教授 生物学 在浩博体育app 自然学派 & 社会科学. “We are experimentally feeding spiders different developmental stages of the lanternfly — from nymphs to fully mature insects — to determine which spiders, 如果有任何, 捕食者是昆虫和在什么情况下.”

Persons and four of his students have collected nearly 800 spiders of varying species on the grounds surrounding Susquehanna’s campus; they hope to increase that number to 1,000. 他们还收集了斑点灯蝇若虫, 昆虫现在处于哪个阶段, 从天上的树(它的首选寄主植物)和其他植物. 人们相信，通过吃天堂之树, lanternflies acquire protective toxins — toxins that might make them unpalatable to spiders.

“我们已经看到，若虫似乎并不害怕蜘蛛, so that’s a good indication that the lanternflies are carrying some kind of chemical protection,人们说.

Back at the lab, the spiders undergo an onboarding of sorts — they are identified, weighed and fed. 一周后, 在蜘蛛有了食欲之后, 学生们送给他们一个灯笼仙女.

“我们正在观察蜘蛛，看它们是否会攻击灯笼蝇, 它需要多长时间，蜘蛛是否真的吃掉了它,25岁的玛丽莎解释道, 费尔劳恩学院的生物专业学生, 新泽西.

一只灯笼蝇若虫，小到可以装在拇指指甲上.学生们正在测试哪些蜘蛛, 如果有任何, 吃下仙女，记录下仙女是从什么植物中采集的.

“到目前为止, it looks like the spiders prefer the nymphs gathered from sumac versus tree of heaven,Defino补充道.

学生们还必须确定灯笼是否被完全吃掉了, 因为“身体”的存在并不总是能揭示答案. Different spiders eat their prey differently — some inject venom that liquifies the prey’s insides which are then “sucked out” by the spider; other spiders crunch their prey with their jaws. 来获取他们最后的信息, students must put the lanternfly under the microscope to determine what remains from the insect.

“这是一项非常详细的工作，我们正在收集大量数据, 但我们在这里所做的可以帮助解决一个非常现实的问题,25岁的史蒂文·里德说, a 生物化学 来自弗吉尼亚州沃伦顿的专业.

The students will continue to collect spotted lanternflies at every stage of their development to determine if spider predation changes.

If the spiders are willing to eat lanternflies — in any stage of development — then the arachnids could be used as a biocontrol mechanism to tamp down the lanternfly’s spread, 人解释说. 但是这种生态 研究 “生物污染”愈演愈烈，人们是否越来越困惑.

“The project we are working on this summer has obvious implications — what happens when new species are introduced?人们说. “但随着越来越多的入侵物种的引入, it becomes progressively more difficult to predict the effects these species may have. 我们在灯笼蝇上看到的说明了一个更大的问题, which is the threat that invasive nonnative species pose to ecosystems when they disrupt the balance and lead to the decline of native species and habitats. 特别是关于那只灯笼, the introduction of the tree of heaven allowed them to expand their range quicker than they otherwise likely would have been able to.”