![]() ![]() After grabbing the skin-wearing Leptodactylus specimens, the spiders examined them, and released them unharmed. Csakany used one of its synonyms: Adenomera andreai ). The black spider might be a new species of Pamphobeteus, known locally as the chicken spider (due to an anecdotal account where one carried off a chick!), but the fact that Csakany observed two different kinds of Peruvian tarantula suggests that humming frogs might have formed relationships with more than one tarantula species.Ĭsakany placed skin from humming frogs onto the body of a frog that does not seem to have any special relationship with tarantulas and is ordinarily eaten by them (the Lowland tropical bullfrog Leptodactylus andreae, a leptodactylid. immanis has some bright pink on its dorsal surface, whereas the spiders observed by Csakany were either robust and solid black, or less robust, and with red hairs on their abdomens. immanis might be incorrect as this spider is otherwise thought to be absent from Peru. Csakany was unable to identify the spiders concerned: she noted that Crocraft & Hambler’s (1989) identification of X. In an unpublished masters report from 2002, Jolene Csakany examined the relationship observed between the Dotted humming frog and two kinds of theraphosid, again in Peru. By eating ants, the microhylids might help protect the spider’s eggs. ![]() ![]() Hunt (1980) suggested that the spider might gain benefit from the presence of the frog: microhylids specialise on eating ants, and ants are one of the major predators of spider eggs. The frog presumably also benefits by receiving protection: small frogs like this are preyed on by snakes and large arthropods, yet on this occasion we have a frog that receives a sort of ‘protection’ from a large, formidable spider bodyguard. Microhylids are probably unpalatable due to their skin toxins, and this might explain how this association arose in the first place.Ĭrocraft & Hambler (1989) noted that the frog seemed to benefit from living in proximity to the spider by eating the small invertebrates that were attracted to prey remains left by the spider. Young spiders have sometimes been observed to grab the frogs, examine them with their mouthparts, and then release them unharmed. Noting a close association between individuals of the Dotted humming frog Chiasmocleis ventrimaculata and the burrowing theraphosid tarantula Xenesthis immanis in southeastern Peru (but read on), they suggested that the spider – well capable of killing and eating a frog of this size – used chemical cues to recognise the frogs. One of the first published discussions of this phenomenon was produced by Crocraft & Hambler (1989). You might be surprised to learn that microhylids in Peru, India, Sri Lanka and perhaps elsewhere have developed close relationships with large spiders. However, some more recent research on the group shows that, like so many animals, they’re really quite interesting once you get to know them. Microhylids – or narrow-mouthed frogs – are not exactly the superstars of the frog world: they’re only really familiar to specialists, despite the fact that (as of May 2015) they contain over 570 species distributed across Africa, Madagascar, the Americas, and Asia. ![]()
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