Sci Rep. 2013 Dec 19;3:3557. doi: 10.1038/srep03557.
Male courtship vibrations delay predatory behaviour in female spiders.
Author information
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Abstract
During
courtship, individuals transfer information about identity, mating
status and quality. However, male web-building spiders face a
significant problem: how to begin courting female spiders without being
mistaken for prey? Male Argiope spiders generate distinctive courtship
vibrations (shudders) when entering a female's web. We tested whether
courtship shudders delay female predatory behaviour, even when live prey
is present in the web. We presented a live cricket to females during
playbacks of shudder vibrations, or white noise, and compared female
responses to a control in which we presented a live cricket with no
playback vibrations. Females were much slower to respond to crickets
during playback of shudder vibrations. Shudder vibrations also delayed
female predatory behaviour in a related spider species, showing that
these vibrations do not simply function for species identity. These
results suggest that male web-building spiders employ a phylogenetically
conserved vibratory signal to ameliorate the risk of pre-copulatory cannibalism.
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