Hebets EA, Uetz GW
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati
Anim Behav. 1999 Apr;57(4):865-872. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1998.1048.
Male wolf spiders within the genus Schizocosa display considerable variation in foreleg ornamentation as well as in courtship communication. Multiple modes of male signalling have evolved in a number of species. Divergence in courtship signals among species within this genus may be directly associated with variation in the sensory sensitivities of conspecific females. We isolated the visual and vibratory courtship cues of four species of Schizocosa and recorded conspecific female receptivity to each isolated cue. We also examined female receptivity to complete multimodal courtship signals. We found that the sensory sensitivities of conspecific females were associated with the predominant modes of male courtship communication. Species in which females use mostly stridulatory cues in assessing conspecific males tended to have stridulation-based male courtship displays (S. duplex and S. uetzi) while the opposite was true for species in which females used more visual cues in male assessment (S. stridulans and S. crassipes). This study suggests coevolution between male signal design and female sensory design. We discuss possible scenarios that could be driving this coevolution, including hypotheses of sensory bias and environmental constraints. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
狼蛛属（Schizocosa）的雄性狼蛛在前肢装饰以及求偶交流方面表现出相当大的差异。许多物种已经进化出多种雄性信号传递模式。该属内不同物种之间求偶信号的差异可能与同种雌性的感官敏感性变化直接相关。我们分离出了四种狼蛛属物种的视觉和振动求偶线索，并记录了同种雌性对每种分离线索的接受程度。我们还研究了雌性对完整多模式求偶信号的接受程度。我们发现，同种雌性的感官敏感性与雄性求偶交流的主要模式相关。在评估同种雄性时，雌性主要使用摩擦发声线索的物种往往具有基于摩擦发声的雄性求偶展示（双斑狼蛛和乌氏狼蛛），而在雄性评估中雌性使用更多视觉线索的物种则相反（发声狼蛛和粗脚狼蛛）。这项研究表明雄性信号设计和雌性感官设计之间存在协同进化。我们讨论了可能推动这种协同进化的各种情况，包括感官偏好和环境限制的假设。版权所有1999动物行为研究协会。
