Chemical Communication in Schizocosa malitiosa: Evidence of a Female Contact Sex Pheromone and Persistence in the Field

Baruffaldi, Luciana; Costa, Fernando Guilherme Perazzo; Rodríguez, Alejandra; González, Andrés

doi:10.1007/s10886-010-9819-x

Cited by 35 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The males’ attraction to both sources of silk is attributed to chemical attractants but silk extracts were not bioassayed in this study. Both the silk (or silk extract) of adult virgin female S. malitiosa and—surprisingly—the silk of sub‐adult male S. malitiosa elicit courtship behaviour by males (Baruffaldi & Costa, ; Baruffaldi, Costa, Rodríguez, & González, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dodging sexual conflict?—Sub‐adult females of a web‐building spider stay cryptic to mate‐seeking adult males

et al. 2018

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Adult males of web‐building spiders often cohabit the webs of sessile sub‐adult (i.e. penultimate instar) females and mate with them as they moult to adults. Often, males accrue benefits from this cohabitation (kleptoparasitism, avoidance of cannibalism, potential polygamy), whereas sub‐adult females may either accrue benefits or incur costs such as curtailed opportunity for mate choice or mate cannibalism. Working with the false black widow spider, Steatoda grossa, we tested the hypothesis that webs of sub‐adult females, unlike those of virgin adult females, lack sex attractant pheromone that mate‐seeking males could detect and exploit for mate location. We tested our hypothesis in laboratory experiments by presenting adult males with binary choices between different types of webs (e.g., webs of adult virgin females, sub‐adult females or sub‐adult males), and methanol extracts of these webs. Males spent more time on webs, or web extracts, of adult virgin females than on webs or web extracts of any other type. Most males (95%) also displayed courtship only on webs, or web extracts, of adult virgin females. Our data demonstrate apparent semiochemical crypsis of sub‐adult females or their webs to mate‐seeking adult males that seem to find sub‐adult females by chance encounter. This crypsis is likely adaptive to sub‐adult females that are in sexual conflict with adult males cohabiting their webs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dodging sexual conflict?—Sub‐adult females of a web‐building spider stay cryptic to mate‐seeking adult males

et al. 2018

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“…Distinguishing between chemotactile (based on contact‐chemoreception from the web, nest, or dragline silk) and olfactory pheromones is customary in the spider literature (Barth, ; Foelix, ), but most research has focused on chemotactile signal use (e.g. Baruffaldi et al ., ). However, olfactory communication, which depends on an animal responding to volatile compounds, has been demonstrated in a few spiders (Gaskett, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Widespread reliance on olfactory sex and species identification by lyssomanine and spartaeine jumping spiders

Nelson

Warui

Jackson

2012

Biol J Linn Soc Lond

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Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are renowned for their exceptional vision, but this does not preclude use of other senses. Here we provide evidence that olfactory pheromones are widespread in the Spartaeinae and Lyssomaninae, two subfamilies regarded as basal clades within the Salticidae. Pheromone use by salticids was tested in a series of experiments: males were tested with the odour of conspecific females, heterospecific females, and conspecific males, and females were tested with the odour of conspecific males. With seven of the 29 species tested, we also tested males using the draglines of conspecific females (spider absent) as the odour source. Males of all species tested were attracted to the odour of conspecific females and to the odour of the draglines of conspecific females. There was no evidence of males responding to the odour of heterospecific females or conspecific males, or of females responding to the odour of conspecific males. These findings suggest that it is primarily males that respond to olfactory sex pheromones, consistent with the apparent trend within spiders of males more actively searching for females and females placing greater emphasis on mate‐choice decisions. Compared with most salticid groups, lyssomanines and spartaeines are unusually sedentary and this lifestyle may favour olfactory mate searching. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 107, 664–677.

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“…The sensory and cognitive task of locating and correctly identifying relevant individuals, such as potential mates and rivals, is not a trivial one, especially when similar species inhabit the same microhabitats at the same times of year (Gröning and Hochkirch, 2008). Although many arthropods are known to use chemical cues to locate relevant individuals in their environments (Nation, 2002), airborne and waterborne chemical cues can be difficult or even impossible to localize in certain conditions, for example on a breezy day or in turbulent waters (Willemse and Takken, 1994;Murlis et al, 2000;Weissburg and Zimmer-Faust, 1993;Weissburg and Zimmer-Faust, 1994), and contact chemical cues can only be detected if an individual happens to cross a path recently traversed by a conspecific (Cook, 1985;Baruffaldi et al, 2010). Furthermore, among taxa that are potentially dangerous to one another, such as jumping spiders, accurate identifications can mean the difference between life and death (Jackson and Pollard, 1997;Harland et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pheromones exert top-down effects on visual recognition in the jumping spiderLyssomanes viridis

Tedore

Johnsen

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYIn diverse and productive habitats, predaceous arthropods are expected to frequently encounter dangerous conspecifics and heterospecifics. This should make quick and accurate discriminations between species and sexes adaptive. By simultaneously sampling both visual cues and pheromones, and by utilizing stringent species-and sex-specific visual recognition templates, an individual should be able to increase both its speed and accuracy in making such discriminations. We tested for the use and stringency of visual recognition templates in the jumping spider Lyssomanes viridis by presenting males with animated images of conspecifics, heterospecifics and composite images that combined the facial coloration and morphology of one sex or species with the leg coloration of another. Malesʼ courtship versus threat displays indicated whether a stimulus was perceived as a potential mate or a threat. By comparing malesʼ visual inspection times of, and display types towards, the various images in the presence versus absence of female pheromones, we were able to deduce whether males tend to inspect a subset of the color pattern and morphological features that make up their conspecific recognition templates (i.e. those on just the face or just the legs), or all features, and whether this changes in the presence of pheromones. We found that the male recognition template for conspecific female was surprisingly coarse, whereas the recognition template for conspecific male, and especially the male face, was more specific. Pheromones hastened the recognition of images with coloration and morphology closely matching those of conspecifics, presumably by activating conspecific visual recognition templates. When males were presented with an image that was, overall, a poor match to a conspecific female, but that contained a subset of female or female-like features, female pheromones usually did not hasten recognition, but did increase the likelihood that the image would be identified as a female. Taken together, our data suggest that males examined features on both the face and the legs in both the presence and absence of pheromones, and that female pheromones tipped the balance in favor of a female identification when a male was unsure how to categorize an incongruous set of visual features. Supplementary material available online at

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Chemical Communication in Schizocosa malitiosa: Evidence of a Female Contact Sex Pheromone and Persistence in the Field

Cited by 35 publications

References 33 publications

Dodging sexual conflict?—Sub‐adult females of a web‐building spider stay cryptic to mate‐seeking adult males

Dodging sexual conflict?—Sub‐adult females of a web‐building spider stay cryptic to mate‐seeking adult males

Widespread reliance on olfactory sex and species identification by lyssomanine and spartaeine jumping spiders

Pheromones exert top-down effects on visual recognition in the jumping spiderLyssomanes viridis

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