Lisa Taylor

Assistant Research Scientist University of Florida

  • Gainesville FL

Lisa Taylor researches biodiversity and the extravagant and brilliantly colored displays that arthropods use to communicate.

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University of Florida

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Biography

Lisa Taylor researches the sexual selection, sensory exploitation and predator psychology of spiders, wasps and other colorful but understudied arthropod groups. Her lab, the Taylor Lab, works to understand the selection pressures that drive the evolution and maintenance of those colorful displays. She is an assistant research scientist in the Department of Entomology and Nematology UF/IFAS.

Areas of Expertise

Animal Behavior
Animal Cognition
Animal Coloration
Animal Communication
Spider Biology

Media Appearances

Inside the mind of a spider

UF IFAS Blogs  online

2022-05-11

For a creature that – legs and all – might be no larger than a pencil eraser, spiders continue to surprise researchers with their cognitive abilities.

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Jumping spiders’ remarkable senses capture a world beyond our perception

Science News  online

2021-10-25

Imagine that the world is shades of gray and a little blurry, almost as if your lousy peripheral vision has taken over. This fuzzy field of view extends so far that you can make out dim shapes and motion behind you as well; no need to turn your head.

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How Jumping Spiders Avoid Becoming A Tasty Snack

Science Friday  online

2019-03-08

Jumping spiders are crafty hunters, but sometimes they need their own disguise to avoid their own predators. Biologist Alexis Dodson studies Synemosyna formica, a species of jumping spider that avoids detection by mimicking ants.

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Articles

Extreme natural size variation in both sexes of a sexually cannibalistic mantidfly

Royal Society Open Publishing

Laurel B. Lietzenmayer, et. al

2022-08-17

In sexually cannibalistic animals, the relative sizes of potential mates often predict the outcome of aggressive encounters. Mantidflies are spider egg predators as larvae and generalist predators as adults. Unlike most cannibalistic species, there is considerable individual variation in body size in both sexes. Using preserved collections of Dicromantispa sayi, we focused on three body size metrics that we found to be positively correlated and accurately measured across researchers.

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Blood-red colour as a prey choice cue for mosquito specialist predators Author links open overlay panel

Animal Behaviour

Lisa A.Taylor, et. al

2022-05-09

Specialist predators are innately and distinctively proficient at targeting specific prey types. This is enabled by behavioural, perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that can only be understood using carefully designed experiments. Evarcha culicivora is an East African jumping spider that feeds on vertebrate blood acquired indirectly by actively targeting blood-carrying female mosquitoes as preferred prey. Here we asked whether these spiders use the colour red to identify this prey.

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Alternative responses by two species of jumping spiders to unpalatability and toxicity in prey

The Journal of Arachnology

Michael E. Vickers, et. al

2021-12-10

A key challenge for generalist predators is avoiding toxins in prey. Species-specific strategies range from total avoidance of distasteful (and potentially toxic) prey to the use of physiological mechanisms to metabolize toxins after consumption. We compare two species of jumping spiders, Habronattus trimaculatus Bryant, 1945 and Phidippus regius CL Koch, 1846.

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