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Thu 24 Jun 2004

Søreren Toft, a Danish Spiderman

Category : visitors

Søreren Toft visited Li Daiqin's Spider Lab from 25 April to 22 May 2004 as a DUO-Denmark Fellow under the DUO-Denmark Exchange Programme. Soeren, from Department of Ecology and Genetics in Aarhus University, Denmark, is well-known for his studies on the nutritional ecology of generalist arthropod predators. He is also interested in the ecology, life history and behaviour of spiders.

During his stay, he presented a seminar on "Nutritional Ecology of Generalist Predators". He made excursions to Bukit Timah Natural Reserve, Nee Soon Forest and Kent Ridge Park. Together with Daiqin, he went to Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China for a one-week spider hunting trip.

Daiqin and Soeren here pictured in Spider Rearing Room with Portia quei, a specialized, spider-eating jumping spider collected back from Yunnan, China. Using this spider, Daiqin and Soeren are examining how this specialist predator balances its nutrients when fed with poor (low protein) and high quality food (high protein), a phenomenon found in generalist predators by Soeren's group in Denmark*.

*Mayntz, D., Toft, S. & Vollrath, F. 2003. Effects of prey qaulity and availability on the life history of a trap-building predator. Oikos 101: 631-638.

Posted at 5:25AM UTC by N. Sivasothi | permalink | ,