DOI: 10.5061/dryad.n5d15
title: Data from: Fear on the move: predator hunting mode predicts variation in prey mortality and plasticity in prey spatial response

description: 1. Ecologists have long searched for a framework of a priori species
 traits to help predict predator-prey interactions in food webs. Empirical
 evidence has shown that predator hunting mode and predator and prey
 habitat domain are useful traits for explaining predator-prey
 interactions. Yet individual experiments have yet to replicate predator
 hunting mode, calling into question whether predator impacts can be
 attributed to hunting mode or merely species identity. 2. We tested the
 effects of spider predators with sit-and-wait, sit-and-pursue and active
 hunting modes on grasshopper habitat domain, activity and mortality in a
 grassland system. We replicated hunting mode by testing two spider
 predator species of each hunting mode on the same grasshopper prey
 species. We observed grasshoppers with and without each spider species in
 behavioral cages and measured their mortality rates, movements and habitat
 domains. We likewise measured the movements and habitat domains of spiders
 to characterize hunting modes. 3. We found that predator hunting mode
 explained grasshopper mortality and spider and grasshopper movement
 activity and habitat domain size. Sit-and-wait spider predators covered
 small distances over a narrow domain space and killed fewer grasshoppers
 than sit-and-pursue and active predators, which ranged farther distances
 across broader domains and killed more grasshoppers, respectively. Prey
 adjusted their activity levels and horizontal habitat domains in response
 to predator presence and hunting mode: sedentary sit-and-wait predators
 with narrow domains caused grasshoppers to reduce activity in the
 same-sized domain space; more mobile sit-and-pursue predators with broader
 domains caused prey to reduce their activity within a contracted
 horizontal (but not vertical) domain space; and highly mobile active
 spiders led grasshoppers to increase their activity across the same domain
 area. All predators impacted prey activity and sit-and-pursue predators
 generated strong effects on domain size. 4. This study demonstrates the
 validity of utilizing hunting mode and habitat domain for predicting
 predator-prey interactions. Results also highlight the importance of
 accounting for flexibility in prey movement ranges as an anti-predator
 response rather than treating the domain as a static attribute.
description: Behavioral observations
 2011Data collected on spider
 predator and grasshopper prey locations in behavioral terraria. This data
 was collected during summer 2011.Behavioral observations
 2012Data collected on spider
 predator and grasshopper prey locations in behavioral terraria. This data
 was collected during summer 2012.Grasshopper mortality
 2011-2012Spider predator
 consumption rates of grasshopper prey during behavioral observations in
 terraria. Includes mortality rates collected during summer 2011 and
 2012.Activity distance moved
 2011-2012Data collected on spider
 predator and grasshopper prey activity as the distance moved per interval
 during behavioral observations. Includes data from 2011 and 2012 at 3-min
 and 20-min intervals.