The co-occurrence of Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin, 1775) and Loxosceles intermedia Mello-Leitão, 1934 outdoor and indoor added to the P.phalangioides araneophagic nature and web invader habit suggest that both species have developed some pattern of interspecific interaction. Thus, we had as objective to characterize this interaction and to evaluate the efficiency of P.phalangioides as predator of L.intermedia.We made five experiments with objective of quantifying the motor patterns used in the capture of different preys, alimentary preference, influence of the diet in the post-embryonic development and colonization for the two species.The predation on L.intermedia was greater despite P.phalangioides be until five times lighter. In the presence of different prey P.phalangioides preferred the insects instead L.intermedia, suggesting being the araneophagy a complementary item in their diet. Probably only the presence of P.phalangioides in the antropic environment is not enough for the maintenance of the Loxosceles populations in levels that do not cause risks to the human health, however the co-existence already takes the need of a resources partitionship and should be considered in management actions.
Antropic environment; Araneophagy; biologic control; loxoscelism
