Krasanya Gaur

Shivani Krishna, Imroze Khan

Life in the Neighbourhood Lab
3rd February 2023
Predator Prey Interactions- Report

Introduction:

We conducted this experiment to find out whether presence of substrate would hinder the

predator in reaching the prey. We also used sedated prey in half the trials to see how the behavior

of the prey influences the time taken by the predator to approach it.

For this experiment, our given predator was jumping spiders and the prey were flies. We

conducted 4 experiments to study predator prey interactions.

Method and Sampling Strategy:

1. Take a Petri Dish and put it on a graph sheet.

2. Carefully add spider to Petri dish using paintbrush and allow it to acclimate for 5 minutes.

3. Add prey into the petri dish carefully without letting the spider out.

4. Record the behavior of prey and predator, record the time taken for spiders to eat flies. Also

record behaviors such as Stalking, aggression, jump length, etc.

7. Now allow the spider time to consume the prey, then repeat the experiment with sedated prey.

8. Note down the behavior of the spider, the time taken to capture the prey and any questions you

might have.

9. Repeat the same experiment with substrate (leaf litter) in the petri dish.
Hypothesis: It would take the spiders longer to capture the prey in the presence of

substrate.

Data:

TRIAL 1 TIME TAKEN TO CAPTURE PREY REMARKS

only seemed to move towards
the prey once the prey started
SPIDER 1 2 mins 4 seconds moving
SEDATED FLIES
WITH held onto prey for 2 minutes
SUBSTRATE SPIDER 2 3 mins 34 seconds after capture

fly stops moving when spider

SPIDER 1 4 mins 25 seconds is around

spider and fly cross each other

yet no attempt to capture was
made, might be due to
ACTIVE FLIES SPIDER 2 5 minutes 3 seconds camouflage

TRIAL 2
if fly doesn't move spider
doesn't seem to recognise its
SPIDER 1 3 mins 48 seconds presence

the spider was holding onto

previous prey thus was not
SEDATED FLIES SPIDER 2 6 minutes 5 seconds making an attempt to capture

fly moved towards spider and

SPIDER 1 5 minutes 1 second spider jumped out of the way

ACTIVE FLIES spider stalked the fly from

WITH behind as it was hiding in the
SUBSTRATE SPIDER 2 3 minutes 34 seconds substrate

Discussion:

It was observed that the general trend was that spiders took longer to capture the prey in

the presence of substrate.

It was also observed that it is easier for the spider to capture moving prey as compared to

stationary prey.

Media:

Spider in petri dish placed on graph sheet

Spider in petri dish with substrate

Spider stalking prey in petri dish without substrate