Vision-mediated courtship in a nocturnal arthropod
Section snippets
Spiders and Maintenance
The H. venatoria individuals used in our experiments were collected as subadults from the Tunghai University campus (120°9′56″E, 24°18′00″N) and the Conservation Education Center, Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute in Chi-Chi, Nantou County, Taiwan (120°48′03.1″E,23°49′42.1″N). They were kept in the laboratory until maturity. We housed them individually in plastic containers (ca. 2 litres) fitted with mesh covers. They were watered and fed with one cockroach (body length ca. 1.5 cm)
Results
Since the interaction between female vision and male stripe was significant (Table 1), we merged these two factors into one factor with four levels (V+W+, V+W−, V−W+ and V−W−). The probability of mating success for the males varied between treatment groups. It was high in groups where female vision was impaired (85% in group V−W+ and 95% in group V−W−), medium in the group with female vision intact and males with white stripes (45% in group V+W+) and low in the group with female vision intact
Discussion
In this study, we unambiguously demonstrated the roles of conspicuous body parts and vision in the courtship of a nocturnal arthropod. When the vision of the female was blocked, courting males had a significantly higher probability of mating success (Fig. 1d). However, when female vision was not blocked, males with a white stripe had higher mating success than those without. This implies that the body coloration of males was important, although it cannot assure successful courtship. Sexual
Acknowledgments
The study was funded by a Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST, Taiwan) grant (MOST-106-2311-B-029-003-MY3) to I.M.T and two MOST postdoctoral grants (MOST 103-2811-B-029-001, 103-2811-B-029-003) to S.Z. We thank Cheng-Wei Chang, Yu-Pei Cheng and Ping-Chung Lin for the dedicated assistance in the field and laboratory.
References (50)
Sensory guidance in spider pre-copulatory behaviour
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology
(1993)- et al.
Fine structural correlates of sensitivity in the eyes of the ctenid spider, Cupiennius salei keys
Tissue and Cell
(1997) - et al.
Substrate-dependent signalling success in the wolf spider, Schizocosa retrorsa
Animal Behaviour
(2008) - et al.
Phenotypic plasticity in a conspicuous female plumage trait: Information content and mating patterns
Animal Behaviour
(2008) - et al.
A dual function of white coloration in a nocturnal spider Dolomedes raptor (Araneae: Pisauridae)
Animal Behaviour
(2015) - et al.
Colours of quality: Structural (but not pigment) coloration informs about male quality in a polychromatic lizard
Animal Behaviour
(2014) - et al.
The effects of experience with different courtship modalities on unimodal and multimodal preferences in a wolf spider
Animal Behaviour
(2017) - et al.
Multimodal communication and mate choice in wolf spiders: Female response to multimodal versus unimodal signals
Animal Behaviour
(2009) Proteins and peptides as pheromone signals and chemical signatures
Animal Behaviour
(2014)- et al.
A nocturnal cursorial predator attracts flying prey with a visual lure
Animal Behaviour
(2015)
Male mate choice selects for female coloration in a fish
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Sexual selection
Female mate choice and male red coloration in a natural three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) population
Behavioral Ecology
A spider's world: Senses and behavior
Vision in the ctenid spider Cupiennius salei: Spectral range and absolute sensitivity
Journal of Experimental Biology
Flashing males win mate success
Nature
Turtles are not just walking stones: Conspicuous coloration and sexual selection in freshwater turtles
Biosemiotics
The sex pheromone of the wasp spider Argiope bruennichi
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Visual ecology
Disruptive coloration and background pattern matching
Nature
Sexual cannibalism in spiders and other invertebrates
Bias reduction of maximum likelihood estimates
Biometrika
Biology of spiders
Multi-modal courtship in the peacock spider, Maratus volans (O.P.-Cambridge, 1874)
PLoS One
The role of nocturnal vision in mate choice: Females prefer conspicuous males in the European tree frog (Hyla arborea)
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Cited by (6)
Animal Signals: Dirty Dancing in the Dark?
2019, Current BiologyCitation Excerpt :Nocturnal visual courtship rituals are extremely rare, and where they do occur it seems that other sensory modalities must be involved to create a robust sexual signal. During courtship rituals, male nocturnal spiders can use white facial patches [16] or leg ornamentation augmented with waving [17], but they typically combine these visual signals with olfactory or seismic (mechanosensory) cues to create robust sexual displays [18,19]. If — or how — male Dot-underwing moths use wing colouration during courtship is an open question.
Visual preference of flower-visiting crab spiders (Ebrechtella tricuspidata) for host flowers
2020, Ecological EntomologyFeature integration theory in non-humans: Spotlight on the archerfish
2020, Attention, Perception, and PsychophysicsField investigation of Turtle doves' courtship: Vocal calls versus arc-flight
2020, Journal of Animal Behaviour and BiometeorologySpider assemblage (arachnida: Araneae) in a riparian firefly sanctuary of sungai Chukai, Terengganu, Malaysia
2019, Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science