Convergent evolution of eye ultrastructure and divergent evolution of vision‐mediated predatory behaviour in jumping spiders

Abstract

All jumping spiders have unique, complex eyes with exceptional spatial acuity and some of the most elaborate vision‐guided predatory strategies ever documented for any animal of their size. However, it is only recently that phylogenetic techniques have been used to reconstruct the relationships and key evolutionary events within the Salticidae. Here, we used data for 35 species and six genes (4.8 kb) for reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships between Spartaeinae, Lyssomaninae and Salticoida. We document a remarkable case of morphological convergence of eye ultrastructure in two clades with divergent predatory behaviour. We, furthermore, find evidence for a stepwise, gradual evolution of a complex predatory strategy. Divergent predatory behaviour ranges from cursorial hunting to building prey‐catching webs and araneophagy with web invasion and aggressive mimicry. Web invasion and aggressive mimicry evolved once from an ancestral spartaeine that was already araneophagic and had no difficulty entering webs due to glue immunity. Web invasion and aggressive mimicry was lost once, in Paracyrba, which has replaced one highly specialized predation strategy with another (hunting mosquitoes). In contrast to the evolution of divergent behaviour, eyes with similarly high spatial acuity and ultrastructural design evolved convergently in the Salticoida and in Portia.

Spectral transmission of the principal-eye corneas of jumping spiders: implications for ultraviolet vision

“…In adapting to such a light habitat, perhaps either UV-B visual pigments or the corneal transmission of extremely short wavelength radiation may have been lost through long-term evolution. We propose that divergent transmission of UV-B by the principal-eye cornea has evolved at least twice in salticids, based on the evolution of the ultrastructure of salticid principal eyes (Su et al, 2007). There are two possibilities: a species that only recently gained SWS1 (UV) opsin expression might maintain a UV-B transmitting cornea, or a species that gained a UV-B blocking cornea might not have lost SWS2B (violet) opsin expression immediately (Hofmann et al, 2010).…”

Evolutionary Genomics for Eye Diversification

“…The camera eye of vertebrates and cephalopods, in spite of the outward similarities, can be considered to be the result of divergent evolution using the same gene source and genetic mechanisms (Ogura et al 2004). Jumping spiders also possess highly evolved camera eye like vertebrates but they have acquired their eyes independently, which was validated by the phylogenetic analysis (Su et al 2007). Camera eye can be also found in more primitive species of Cnidaria, cubozoan jellyfish (Nilsson 2004).…”

The black-headed jumping spider,Trite planicepsSimon, 1899 (Araneae: Salticidae): redescription including cytochromecoxidase subunit 1 and paralogous 28S sequences

“…COI is one of the fastest-evolving mitochondrial markers (Hedin & Maddison 2001) and has been used to examine genetic differences among species and populations in salticids (Arnedo & Gillespie 2006;Ceccarelli & Crozier 2007) and other spiders (e.g. Vink et al 2008;Vink et al 2011;Lattimore et al 2011 Su et al 2007;Maddison et al 2008). We sequenced a fragment of COI from 12 specimens of T. planiceps from throughout New Zealand (Fig.…”