A Field Study On Interspecific Competition Between Ants (Formicidae) and Hunting Spiders (Lycosidae, Gnaphosidae, Ctenidae, Pisauridae, Clubionidae)

Abstract

1. The possibility of interspecific competition between spiders and ants was studied by means of pitfall trapping in a meadow in a dune area. 2. There is no significant difference, in the composition of the fauna of wandering spiders or in the total number of spiders caught, between a habitat in which ants are numerous and a comparable habitat without ants. 3. For the area in which ants occurred, no correlation was found between the number of ants and the number of spiders caught in pitfall traps provided with preservation fluid. 4. The conclusion drawn by BREYMEYER that the relationship between ants and spiders in the area studied by her is of the competitive type, is erroneous.