Predation

Definition

A biological interaction in which a predator organism kills and consumes another organism (the prey). In arthropod ecology, predation encompasses diverse strategies including ambush (e.g., crab spiders, Thomisidae), active pursuit (e.g., tiger beetles, Cicindelinae), and trap-building (e.g., antlion pits, web-spinning spiders). Predation differs from parasitism (where the host typically survives initial attack) and scavenging (consumption of already dead organisms), though many predators engage in facultative scavenging.

Etymology

From Latin praedari, to plunder or seize as booty, from praeda, prey or plunder.

Example

A mantid nymph stalking and seizing a housefly, or a wolf spider (Lycosidae) detecting and subduing a ground-dwelling beetle.

Synonyms

• predatory behavior

Related Terms

• Predator
• prey
• Parasitism
• Parasitoidism
• scavenging
• Functional response
• trophic cascade
• intraguild predation

Usage Notes

Specialists distinguish true predation (immediate killing and consumption) from micropredation (repeated attacks on multiple hosts, as in mosquitoes) and parasitoidism (larval development leading to host death, typical of many wasps and flies). The term is sometimes applied loosely to seed predation and destructive frugivory, which ecologically function similarly to animal predation. In food-web studies, 'predation' refers specifically to direct consumption links, not to broader top-down effects.