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1 November 2013 Love is in the air and on the ground: olfactory and tactile cues elicit visual courtship behavior by Cyrba males (Araneae: Salticidae)
Ana M. Cerveira, Robert R. Jackson
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are known for their complex eyes and exceptional spatial vision, but less is known about the role of chemoreception in salticid behavior. Here we investigate whether olfactory pheromones (i.e., airborne chemical signals) from conspecific spiders and their draglines elicit the display behavior typically performed during vision-based courtship from the males of Cyrba algerina (Lucas 1846) and C. ocellata (Kroneberg 1875). We used conspecific and heterospecific spiders and their draglines as potential sources of chemical cues. We show that olfactory cues from conspecific females, but not conspecific males or heterospecific females, effectively elicit vision-based courtship from the males of both Cyrba species. These results demonstrate that C. algerina and C. ocellata males make display decisions on the basis of species- and sex-specific olfactory information. Moreover, even in the absence of a conspecific female spider, female draglines suffice as a source of olfactory pheromones, illustrating the difficulty of ruling out olfaction when testing for chemotactile pheromones.

The American Arachnological Society
Ana M. Cerveira and Robert R. Jackson "Love is in the air and on the ground: olfactory and tactile cues elicit visual courtship behavior by Cyrba males (Araneae: Salticidae)," The Journal of Arachnology 41(3), 374-380, (1 November 2013). https://doi.org/10.1636/Hi12-42.1
Received: 10 June 2012; Published: 1 November 2013
KEYWORDS
Jumping spiders
mate-identification
olfaction
pheromones
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