The role of experience in determining patch-use by adult crab spiders

`I tested the role of the previous substrate in hunting-patch choice using a sit-and-wait predator, the crab spider Misumena vatia. Adult females that hunted on Rowers of common milkweed Asclepias syriaca and pasture rose Ros a carolina differed in their subsequent choices of these substrates as a co nsequence of both the species of flower encountered and their recent experi ence with these flowers. In six-hour tests, individuals taken from both mil kweed and rose Rowers and later returned to the same species of Bower remai ned and hunted on these sites in similar frequencies. However, spiders from milkweed placed on rose remained significantly less frequently than spider s from rose placed on milkweed or spiders returned to their accustomed flow er species. A higher proportion of individuals that left their sites did so more quickly from accustomed than from unfamiliar flower species. Capture of prey increased the probability that a spider would remain during the tes t period, but even spiders not capturing prey showed the trends noted above . These results demonstrate that immediately previous experiences can modif y patch-choice behavior in ways that significantly affect the foraging succ ess of an individual, with important consequences for lifetime fitness.