Are candy-striped spiders a threat to North American ecosystems?

Research published in Ecology took a closer look into the candy-striped spider’s diet and behaviour and found that these spiders use a variety of tactics to take down prey much larger than themselves, including sleeping bees and wasps.

“At a time where the world is facing a biodiversity crisis that includes unprecedented declines of insect pollinators, future studies will help determine whether their benefits as natural pest-controllers outweigh their negative impacts as predators of pollinators, “says Catherine Scott, Postdoctoral Fellow in McGill’s Department of Natural Resource Sciences and co-author of the study.

Read the article in the McGill Newsroom.