Table 1.

Species variables included in analysis

Variable	Measure	Description
Functional diversity (FD)	Continuous	Mean pairwise functional dissimilarity between species in each experiment based on the traits included in Appendix S3 (excluding body size)
Hunting strategy	Continuous	Mean pairwise dissimilarity between species in each experiment based on hunting stategy (sit and wait, ambush and pursue or active)
Habitat domain	Continuous	Mean pairwise dissimilarity between species in each experiment based on habitat (ground/base of plant, foliar or broad)
Diet breadth	Continuous	Mean pairwise dissimilarity between species in each experiment based on diet breadth (specialist or generalist)
Phylogenetic diversity (PD)	Continuous	Mean pairwise phylogenetic dissimilarity between species based on Linnaean taxonomic classification decoupled from the functional traits
ratiolarge	Continuous	Body size ratio between the largest predator species and the prey species (largest predator body size/prey body size). Sqrt transformed. Excluded from analysis
ratiosmall	Continuous	Body size ratio between the smallest predator species in the polyculture and the prey species (smallest predator body size/prey body size). Sqrt transformed
Size difference	Continuous	Mean pairwise difference in body size (length in mm) between predator species in each experiment
Prey size (mm)	Continuous	Body length of the prey. Where multiple prey were included in a treatment the mean of their body sizes was used. Log transformed
Predator species richness	Factor (2 or >2)	Two level factor categorising polyculture treatments on whether they contained two predators or more than two predators (max predator species richness = 4)
Prey species richness	Factor (1 or >1)	Two level factor categorising whether one or more than one prey species was present in the study (max prey species richness = 4)