Prey killing rate of a generalist predator may be enhanced by macronutrient manipulation

Generalist arthropod predators forage not only to gain energy and nutrients, but also to obtain a balanced intake of macronutrients (the intake target). We test two opposite hypotheses concerning the predation rate of nutritionally imbalanced predators: It will increase 1) if the prey is rich in macronutrients that the predator is short of; or 2) if the prey is low in macronutrients that the predator is short of. We used the wolf spider Pardosa amentata (Clerck) as the predator and nutritionally manipulated Drosophila melanogaster Meigen as prey. We completed a full factorial experiment with 8 treatment groups, in which we measured predation, consumption, and prey utilization of high-protein (HP) and high-lipid (HL) flies by spiders that were previously treated with either HP- or HL-flies for 2 or 6 days. The results supported hypothesis 2. Whether spiders had been previously fed HP-or HL-flies, those that were tested against the same type of fly killed more than those tested against th..., Predation experiments in the laboratory., , # Data supporting \"Prey killing rate of a generalist predator may be enhanced by macronutrient manipulation\"

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tb2rbp08f](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tb2rbp08f)

## Description of the data and file structure

Wolf spiders Pardosa amentata were fed ad libitum for 2 or 6 days with fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster that had high protein content (HP-flies) or high lipid-content (HL-flies). Subsequently, spider predation on and consumption of HP- and HL-flies were measured in a full factorial design.

Missing values indicated by \"no data\", due to death of spiders during the experiment.