''Brettus adonis'', is a species of

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

of the genus ''

Brettus ''Brettus'' is a genus of jumping spiders. Its six described species are found in southern Asia from India to China and Sulawesi, with a single species endemic to Madagascar. Two species in this genus, ''B. celebensis'' and ''B. madagascarensis ...

''. It is endemic to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Diet and behaviour

''Brettus adonis'' preys upon other spiders, mainly web-building ones. Members of this species do not stick to any kind of

spider silk Spider silk is a protein fibre or silk spun by spiders. Spiders use silk to make webs or other structures that function as adhesive traps to catch prey, to entangle and restrain prey before biting, to transmit tactile information, or as nest ...

, and will invade the webs of other spiders to feed on them. To capture a web-building spider, they typically pluck upon the silken strings at the edge of the web with their

pedipalp Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the secondary pair of forward appendages among Chelicerata, chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to ...

s, varying how they pluck until an effective rhythm is found. Then, they repeat this manner of plucking and lure the spider over(

aggressive mimicry Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry in which predation, predators, parasites, or parasitoids share similar signalling theory, signals, using a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host (biolog ...

), capturing or stabbing their prey in a lunging attack. Apart from spiders, ''Brettus adonis'' will also prey on insects, although they prefer to eat web-building spiders. They usually capture insects via close range lunging attacks.

References

Salticidae Endemic fauna of Sri Lanka Spiders of Asia Spiders described in 1900 {{Salticidae-stub