Variation in activity rates may explain sex-specific dorsal color patterns in Habronattus jumping spiders

Autor: Kevin J. McGraw, Collette Cook, Lisa A. Taylor
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Male
0106 biological sciences
Leaves
Ecological selection
Speciation
Wasps
Social Sciences
Predation
Plant Science
01 natural sciences
Courtship
Psychology
media_common
Sex Characteristics
0303 health sciences
Multidisciplinary
Ecology
Animal Behavior
biology
Plant Anatomy
Biological Mimicry
Eukaryota
Spiders
Trophic Interactions
Insects
Community Ecology
Sympatric speciation
Medicine
Imitation
Female
Research Article
Evolutionary Processes
Deception
Arthropoda
Science
Movement
media_common.quotation_subject
Color
Zoology
Context (language use)
010603 evolutionary biology
03 medical and health sciences
Cryptic Speciation
Habronattus
Animals
030304 developmental biology
Behavior
Evolutionary Biology
Dichromatism
Ants
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
biology.organism_classification
Invertebrates
Hymenoptera
Biological Variation
Population

Predatory Behavior
Mimicry
Zdroj: PLoS ONE
PLoS ONE, Vol 14, Iss 10, p e0223015 (2019)
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223015
Popis: In many animals, color pattern and behavior interact to deceive predators. For mimics, such deception can range from precise (near-perfect mimicry) to only subtle resemblance (imperfect mimicry) and such strategies often differ by sex because of differing ecological selection pressures. In this field study, we examine variation in behavior and ecology that may be linked with sex differences in dorsal color pattern in three sympatric species of Habronattus jumping spiders (H. clypeatus, H. hallani, H. pyrrithrix). Males of these species have conspicuous dorsal patterning that is subtly reminiscent of the general color patterns of wasps and bees, while females are cryptic. We show that, compared with females, these conspicuous males exhibited increased leg-waving behavior outside of the context of courtship; such behavior is common in jumping spiders that mimic wasps and bees presumably because a mimic's waving legs resemble antennae. Males of a fourth sympatric species (H. hirsutus) without conspicuous dorsal patterning did not exhibit increased leg-waving. These results are consistent with and offer preliminary support for the idea that male color and behavior may work together to deceive predators. We also examined whether higher movement rates of males (who must wander to find females) and/or different use of the microhabitat by the sexes could explain sexual dichromatism. We found that microhabitat use was similar for males and females, but males of all three conspicuously-colored species spent more time actively moving than females. To our knowledge, this is the first study to speculate that conspicuous male dorsal coloration in Habronattus may have a deceptive function, and to explore why dorsal coloration differs between the sexes.
Databáze: OpenAIRE