Aposematic signals often allow chemically defended prey to avoid attack from generalist predators, including jumping spiders. However, not all individual predators in a population behave in the same way. Here, in laboratory trials, we document that most individual Phidippus regius jumping spiders attack and reject chemically defended milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus), immediately releasing them unharmed. However, a small number of individuals within the population kill and completely consume these presumably toxic prey items. This phenomenon was infrequent with only 14% of our sample (17/122) consuming the milkweed bugs over the course of the study. Individuals that killed and consumed bugs often did so repeatedly; specifically, individuals that consumed a bug in their first test were more likely to kill a bug in their second test and also tended to consume them again. We explored what might drive some (but not all) individuals to consume these bugs and found that neither sex, sexual maturity, body size, laboratory housing type, nor being wild‐caught or being laboratory‐reared, predicted milkweed bug consumption. Consuming bugs had no negative effects on spider mass or body condition; contrary to expectations, individuals that consumed milkweed bugs actually gained more body mass and increased in body condition. We discuss potential behavioural and physiological variation between individuals that may drive these rare behaviours and the implications for the evolution of prey defences.

中文翻译：

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跳跃蜘蛛（Phidippus regius）对姿势猎物的种内变化

姿势信号通常允许化学防御的猎物避免来自包括跳蛛在内的通体捕食者的攻击。但是，并非种群中所有个体掠食者的行为都相同。在这里，在实验室试验中，我们记录了大多数个体飞跃蜘蛛会攻击并排斥化学防御的乳草虫（Oncopeltus fasciatus），请立即释放它们而不受伤害。但是，种群中的少数人杀死并完全消耗了这些可能有毒的猎物。在研究过程中，只有14％的样本（17/122）食用马利筋虫，这种现象很少发生。杀死并消耗了错误的人经常反复这样做。具体而言，在第一次测试中使用过错误的个人在第二次测试中更可能杀死了一个错误，并且还倾向于再次使用它们。我们研究了可能导致某些（但不是全部）个体食用这些虫子的原因，发现，性别，性成熟度，体型，实验室住所类型，野外捕获或实验室饲养都无法预测乳草虫子的消费。食用昆虫对蜘蛛的质量或身体状况没有负面影响。与预期相反，食用马利筋虫的人实际上体重增加，身体状况增加。我们讨论了可能导致这些罕见行为的个体之间潜在的行为和生理变异，以及对防御系统演变的暗示。