Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/10/2013 - 17:07
Forums
Predatory Spiders in the Arctic Food Web 2013

Two questions:

What animals hunt or prey on the wolf spider besides other wolf spiders?

Do the wolf spiders that eat other wolf spiders have more of the nitrogen isotope in their stomach?

Thanks, Stephanie Kichler MSI Expedition: Green Teacher Workshop

Wed, 07/10/2013 - 17:20

Anonymous

In looking for isotopes of nitrogen, are you expecting that the isotopes are evenly distributed throughout the Wolf Spiders bodies, including the legs?Christal James-Walker
Expedition Green
Teacher Workshop MSI

Wed, 07/10/2013 - 22:17

Nell Kemp

Hi Stephanie, The other major predator of wolf spiders (there are about 15 different species) is birds - there are a lot of them around here! The nitrogen isotope is a tricky one, as organisms move further up the food chain (i.e. move further away from eating plants), the ratio of nitrogen should increase. The theory is that cannibalistic spiders should have a high amount of nitrogen, as spiders possess more nitrogen than other invertebrates.
Thanks for your question!

Wed, 07/10/2013 - 22:19

Nell Kemp

Hi Christal, Great question. The amount of nitrogen does change based on the body part, but I do not know the specific ratios. There is generally expected to be more nitrogen in the bodies than in the legs.
Thanks for reading!