The Tadpole Eating Spider!

Hot off the press:

During August 2019, just before starting a night-walk in the nature trail of the Wildlife Institute of India campus, we observed an amazing natural history moment of a spider predating upon the tadpoles of the Asian common toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus).

Image credits: M. A. Yathumon

Yathu took some amazing photographs of the incident! (For more photographs, see the article). Later we identified the spider species with the help of Dr. Manju Siliwal and wrote a short-note on this natural history observation in the Reptiles & Amphibians journal of the International Reptile Conservation Foundation (IRCF). The article got published today (see the link below).

Hope you will enjoy the read: https://journals.ku.edu/reptilesandamphibians/article/view/15312

Jithin, V., Devarajan, A., Dharmaraj, J. & Yathumon, M.A. (2021). Predation on Asian Common Toad, Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Lütken, 1864) (Anura: Bufonidae), tadpoles by a Fish-eating Spider, Nilus sp. (Araneae: Pisauridae) . Reptiles & Amphibians, 28(1), 56–58.

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Manju Siliwal for identifying the spider, Dr. Abhijit Das for reviewing the manuscript, and Abdus Shakur for logistical help. We are thankful to the Director, Dean, and

faculties of the Wildlife Institute of India for their constant support. Thanks also to Ashish K. Jangid for encouragement and support.

Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.