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Sci Nat
 2017
DOI: 10.1007/s00114-017-1440-1
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An estimated 400–800 million tons of prey are annually killed by the global spider community

Martin Nyffeler
1
,
Klaus Birkhofer
2

Abstract: Spiders have been suspected to be one of the most important groups of natural enemies of insects worldwide. To document the impact of the global spider community as insect predators, we present estimates of the biomass of annually killed insect prey. Our estimates assessed with two different methods suggest that the annual prey kill of the global spider community is in the range of 400–800 million metric tons (fresh weight), with insects and collembolans composing >90% of the captured prey. This equals approxi… Show more

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Cited by 394 publications

(248 citation statements)
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“…Forests cover a large portion of the global terrestrial surface area (41.6 million km 2 ; Saugier et al 2001), and in these productive and vegetatively complex habitats, birds usually reach higher diversities (Willson 1974) and numbers ha −1 compared to non-forested areas (Gaston et al 2003). A similar trend of highest predation impact occurring in forested areas has been reported for spiders (Nyffeler and Birkhofer 2017). Forest birds feed frequently on potentially harmful caterpillar and beetle pests (Holmes et al 1979; Fayt et al 2005; Moorman et al 2007).…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 83%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
“…Forests cover a large portion of the global terrestrial surface area (41.6 million km 2 ; Saugier et al 2001), and in these productive and vegetatively complex habitats, birds usually reach higher diversities (Willson 1974) and numbers ha −1 compared to non-forested areas (Gaston et al 2003). A similar trend of highest predation impact occurring in forested areas has been reported for spiders (Nyffeler and Birkhofer 2017). Forest birds feed frequently on potentially harmful caterpillar and beetle pests (Holmes et al 1979; Fayt et al 2005; Moorman et al 2007).…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 83%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
“…Our findings also support the generalist and voracious feeding capabilities exhibited by spiders, while maintaining variable hunting strategies and wide dispersal abilities (Bell et al, 2005;Cardoso et al, 2011;Michalko et al, 2019;Nyffeler & Birkhofer, 2017). Circadian activity is inherently linked to the natural day-night rhythm, which is influenced by environmental factors like light and humidity, shaping circadian rhythms (Krumpalova & Tuf, 2013).…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 75%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
“…This observation concurs with the hypothesis that arthropods, possessing a waxy cuticle that protects them from desiccation, may be more resistant to climate change than soft-bodied organisms (Sylvain et al 2014). While arthropod predators and parasites are prevalent aboveground (Nyffeler & Birkhofer 2017), EPNs are key herbivore enemies belowground (Půza & Mrácek 2005;Denno et al 2008). The contrasting impact of climate change on above-and belowground organisms survival supports the hypothesis that green, aboveground, food webs may be more sensitive to climate change than brown, belowground ones (Thakur 2020).…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 68%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
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