01961nas a2200157 4500008004100000245010300041210006900144300001200213490000800225520133500233100003101568700002801599700002401627700002501651856012701676 2018 eng d00aWeapon allometry and phenotypic correlation in the New Zealand sheetweb spider Cambridgea plagiata0 aWeapon allometry and phenotypic correlation in the New Zealand s a349-3590 v1263 a

Sexual selection has repeatedly driven the evolution of exaggerated secondary sexual traits in male animals. When multiple traits are used in competitive contexts, producing or bearing one trait may be costly and come at the expense of other traits via trade-offs. Conversely, sexually selected traits may show positively correlated patterns of relative investment. Males of the sheetweb spider, Cambridgea plagiata, have exaggerated chelicerae and use their chelicerae and forelegs in male–male contest behaviour. In the present study, we describe the linear scaling relationship of the chelicerae and forelegs of both males and females. Chelicerae length was positively allometric for males, but not for females, whereas fore-tibiae and fore-femora showed a slightly negative allometric relationship for both sexes. We found no evidence of a trade-off between the length of tibiae and femora with chelicerae length when comparing simple phenotypic correlations. Rather, the length of the tibia and femur, relative to body size, both increased when compared with relative chelicerae length, indicating that these traits might be under correlational selection. This suggests that larger chelicerae and forelegs are advantageous to males and that when resources are available, males will invest in both these traits.

1 aMcCambridge, Josephine, E.1 aPainting, Christina, J.1 aWalker, Leilani, A.1 aHolwell, Gregory, I. uhttps://bio.acousti.ca/content/weapon-allometry-and-phenotypic-correlation-new-zealand-sheetweb-spider-cambridgea-plagiata00667nas a2200157 4500008004100000245007900041210006900120260001600189490000700205100002200212700001900234700002200253700002400275700002200299856018800321 2020 eng d00aComplex courtship in the Habronattus clypeatus group (Araneae: Salticidae)0 aComplex courtship in the Habronattus clypeatus group Araneae Sal cJan-12-20200 v481 aRivera, Christine1 aHedin, Marshal1 aMason, Andrew, C.1 aMaddison, Wayne, P.1 aElias, Damian, O. uhttps://bioone.org/journals/the-journal-of-arachnology/volume-48/issue-3/JoA-S-18-045/Complex-courtship-in-the-Habronattus-clypeatus-group-Araneae-Salticidae/10.1636/JoA-S-18-045.full02839nas a2200097 4500008004100000245009900041210006900140520238500209100002802594856011902622 2020 eng d00aVibratory Communication in the Black Widow Spider, Latrodectus hesperus (Araneae: Theridiidae)0 aVibratory Communication in the Black Widow Spider Latrodectus he3 a

Several studies have described vibration producing behaviours across many web-building spiders, and vibratory communication is thought to play an integral role during male-female interactions. Despite the presumed ubiquity of vibratory communication in this group of spiders, very little is known about the characteristics and functions of the signals involved, how signals are produced and transmitted through webs, or how vibrations are perceived. In this thesis, I used the western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus, as my focal organism, to investigate the details of vibratory communication from sender to the receiver. My results show that male L. hesperus courtship vibration signals comprise three distinct components (abdominal tremulation, bounce and web plucks), each produced using different signal production mechanism. Larger males produced bounce and web pluck signals with high power, which suggests that these signals may carry information about male traits. I found that during the early phase of courtship, males produced these different signal components haphazardly, with little temporal organization among the individual components (unstructured signaling). However, during the later phase of courtship, as males approach females, males intermittently organized signal components into a stereotyped temporal sequence (structured signaling). I tested the importance of these composite multicomponent signals, and found that males that displayed these structured signals more often were more likely to successfully copulate and copulate sooner. Vibrations arriving at the females are transmitted through the legs. My results show that the more distal joints of the legs (i.e. tarsus-metatarsus joint) move more to higher frequencies, and more proximal joints are tuned to lower frequencies. This suggests that female leg-joints play an important role in segregating vibration frequencies, and this may have important implications for prey/mate discrimination, as well as vibration source localization. These results show that L. hesperus males employ multiple signal components during courtship, and provide novel insights into emergent signal complexities in a web-building spider, previously thought to be ‘simple’ signalers. Additionally, the spider body mechanics can play a key role in influence vibration perception.

1 aSivalinghem, Senthurran uhttps://bio.acousti.ca/content/vibratory-communication-black-widow-spider-latrodectus-hesperus-araneae-theridiidae01967nas a2200109 4500008004100000245014700041210006900188520151900257100001701776700001601793856004801809 1993 eng d00aVibratory communication in spiders II. Representation of parameters contained in synthetic male courtship signals by female vibration receptor0 aVibratory communication in spiders II Representation of paramete3 a

We analyzed the response of the vibration sensitive lyriform organ on the metatarsus of female spiders (Cupiennius salei) to dummies of male courtship vibrations. One of the two representative slits studied is sharply tuned to 500 Hz. Only the other slit is sensitive enough at lower frequencies to represent the parameters contained in the behaviourally effective dummies:

1. Amplitude. The physiological threshold is similar to the behavioural threshold. The stimulus acceleration amplitudes leading to a good synchronization between response and temporal stimulus pattern coincide with those effectively eliciting a behavioural response. The most frequent spike intervals remain nearly constant in this range. At acceleration amplitudes above the natural range, syllable and pause durations are misrepresented by the receptor response.

2. Frequency. Varying the carrier frequency between 35–500 Hz changes the most frequent spike intervals. Interval histograms resulting from behaviourally effective stimuli (50–200 Hz), however, are similr for carrier frequencies differing by a factor of 2.

3. Temporal pattern. Response duration reflects the temporal parameters of the stimulus. The most frequent spike interval only changes with temporal stimulus characteristics far off the natural range. The number of spikes during a syllable decreases in ongoing stimulus series. The quality of copying the temporal stimulus pattern remains unchanged, however.

1 aBaurecht, D.1 aBarth, F.G. uhttp://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF0021269502556nas a2200205 4500008004100000245009700041210007100138520168500209653001801894653002401912653002301936653001201959653001801971653001701989100002802006700002402034700002902058700002502087856023802112 2019 eng d00aConsistency of females' stridulatory behaviour during inter‐sexual interactions in spiders0 aConsistency of females stridulatory behaviour during inter‐sexua3 a

In a sexual context, it is expected that females base their choice of mate on the be‐ haviours that males perform during courtship, as such behaviours are associated with the male's mate quality. Stridulation is one form of female communication in arthropods, for example, spiders. In spiders, stridulation during sexual interactions is relatively common in some groups but mainly restricted to males. In the pholcid spider Holocnemus pluchei (Pholcidae), both sexes have stridulatory organs. The aims of the present work were to: (a) determine possible differences in the frequency of occurrence of stridulation between females during inter‐sexual interactions, (b) es‐ tablish female consistency in stridulation along repeated interactions and (c) analyse if female stridulation is associated with certain male behaviours during pre‐copula‐ tory courtship and with male size. Female H. pluchei showed highly repeatable dif‐ ferences in their frequency of stridulation across consecutive encounters with males (ICC = 0.64). However, only a modest level of repeatability was detected in total time females spent stridulating across trials (ICC = 0.19). Females’ mean stridulatory be‐ haviour did not change across ten consecutive trials spread across 20 days, and their behaviour was apparently unaffected by male persistence of copulatory attempted and/or size. These results imply that the frequency of female stridulatory behaviour is a trait that is highly characteristic of each individual. Finally, our work opens the door to determine whether behavioural consistency manifests in other ecological contexts and their functional implications.

10acommunication10acopulatory attempts10aHolocnemus pluchei10apholcid10arepeatability10astridulation1 aCalbacho‐Rosa, Lucía1 aCargnelutti, Franco1 aCórdoba‐Aguilar, Alex1 aPeretti, Alfredo, V. uhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/eth.12880https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/eth.12880https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/eth.12880https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/eth.1288002209nas a2200157 4500008004100000022001400041245009800055210006900153520166000222100001401882700002301896700002701919700002001946700001501966856007001981 2018 eng d a1045-224900aEquivalent effect of UV coloration and vibratory signal on mating success in a jumping spider0 aEquivalent effect of UV coloration and vibratory signal on matin3 a

Ultraviolet (UV; wavelengths: 280–400 nm) coloration has been shown to be an important visual signal but has not been studied in conjunction with other signals such as vibratory signals previously. Here, we investigated multimodal signaling function in the visual and substrate-borne vibratory modalities of the UV-ornamented jumping spider Cosmophasis umbratica, in which the importance of UV coloration in courtship displays has been demonstrated. We first described vibratory signals produced by courting males. We found that while vibratory signals mainly consist of palp drumming and abdomen thump, amplitude of abdomen thump shows a high variance and is positively correlated with body mass. This suggests that abdomen thump as a vibratory component may be condition-dependent. To examine whether the vibratory and UV signal function as backup to each other in a variable environment (efficacy-based backup hypothesis), we used a fully crossed 2 × 2 mating assay, a signal-isolation approach, to investigate how isolated and combined signals affect mate choice by females. Our results showed that both signals in isolation or in combination result in similar female responses (i.e., mating success, latency to copulation, female attention ratio). The presence of both vibratory and UV signals affects mating frequency, with no significant differences in mating frequency when vibratory and UV signals are presented in isolation or in combination. These results support the efficacy-based backup hypothesis. We therefore conclude that vibratory and UV signals have equivalent effects in predicting mating success in C. umbratica.

1 aZeng, Hua1 aWee, Samantha, S E1 aPainting, Christina, J1 aZhang, Shichang1 aLi, Daiqin uhttp://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/production_in_progress.pdf02382nas a2200253 4500008004100000022001400041245007900055210006900134260001600203490000700219520162600226653001701852653001801869653002301887653001501910653002101925653001601946653002001962653002801982100002102010700002002031700002202051856005502073 2018 eng d a0340-544300aTemperature alters multimodal signaling and mating success in an ectotherm0 aTemperature alters multimodal signaling and mating success in an cJan-12-20180 v723 a

Temperature affects ectotherms in a variety of ways. These effects can be especially complex in sexual behaviors, as different sexes may be affected differently by temperature. We examined this in the jumping spider, Habronattus clypeatus. In this species, males court females using visual and vibratory signals. We tested whether key intersexual behaviors would change with temperature in similar, predictable ways across males and females. We first measured temperature and apparent activity of individuals across the day. We found that H. clypeatus are active across a wide range of temperatures (11–56 °C) and are most active at times of day when temperature ranges from 13 to 46 °C. Next, we performed mating experiments across behaviorally relevant temperatures. Females were more likely to allow males to progress to later stages of courtship and had higher mating rates at higher temperatures. Male visual and vibratory courtship behaviors generally became faster, higher-pitched, and lower in amplitude at higher temperatures. This relationship between temperature and signal aspects attained a roughly curvilinear shape, with an asymptote around 40 °C. Intriguingly, mating rates in the lab were highest at temperatures potentially above those during peak spider activity in the field. Our results suggest that temperature’s effects on behavior are complex and can affect males and females differently. This work emphasizes that understanding temperature effects on mating is critical to understanding sexual selection patterns particularly in species which use complex signals.

10abiotremology10acommunication10amultimodal signals10aSalticidae10asexual selection10aTemperature10aThermal ecology10aVibratory communication1 aBrandt, Erin, E.1 aKelley, Patrick1 aElias, Damian, O. uhttp://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00265-018-2620-502742nas a2200265 4500008004100000022001300041245011000054210006900164260001600233300001400249490000800263520190800271653002002179653001402199653002002213653002902233653002102262653002302283653001902306100002102325700001902346700002402365700002102389856006602410 2017 eng d a0003347200aComplex signals and comparative mate assessment in wolf spiders: results from multimodal playback studies0 aComplex signals and comparative mate assessment in wolf spiders  cJan-12-2017 a283 - 2990 v1343 a

Complex signals of animals involve multiple sensory modes and contain multiple structural components, and teasing apart how these modes and components interact in receiver decision making is an experi- mental challenge. Females of many species have ordered preferences for increased size or expression of male indicator traits. However, studies also suggest other species may exhibit comparative evaluation of mates rather than absolute preference hierarchies. We examined mate assessment by female wolf spi- ders, Schizocosa ocreata, using digital playback of video and vibratory/seismic signals in preference and choice tests of male trait differences. In playback experiments, female wolf spiders showed ordered preferences for male condition indicating traits (leg tuft size, vibration signal amplitude) in both indi- vidual sensory modes and multimodal (combined) signals. Tests with single modes and multimodal signals showed that trait expression in either signal mode affects outcome of mate choice. Females exhibited transitive preferences, consistently choosing males with larger tuft size or higher amplitude vibration in no-choice and two-choice tests. Thus, female S. ocreata do not necessarily need to compare mates to exhibit preferences for particular traits. Choice tests with multimodal playback showed that females made predicted choices when male traits covaried positively, but in ‘cue-conflict’ (negative trait covariance) choice tests, females showed a bias for visual signal trait expression (tuft size), displaying priority for visual signals over vibratory signals when in conflict. These studies demonstrate that under controlled experimental conditions, differences in behavioural responses to manipulation of digital video and vibration playback can provide valuable insights about recognition and interpretation of complex signals and their components.

10acomplex signals10aLycosidae10amate preference10amultimodal communication10asexual selection10avibratory playback10avideo playback1 aUetz, George, W.1 aStoffer, Brent1 aLallo, Madeline, M.1 aClark, David, L. uhttp://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347217300441