Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2013 Dec 19;3:3557. doi: 10.1038/srep03557.
During courtship, individuals transfer information about identity, mating status and quality. However, male web-building spiders face a significant problem: how to begin courting female spiders without being mistaken for prey? Male Argiope spiders generate distinctive courtship vibrations (shudders) when entering a female's web. We tested whether courtship shudders delay female predatory behaviour, even when live prey is present in the web. We presented a live cricket to females during playbacks of shudder vibrations, or white noise, and compared female responses to a control in which we presented a live cricket with no playback vibrations. Females were much slower to respond to crickets during playback of shudder vibrations. Shudder vibrations also delayed female predatory behaviour in a related spider species, showing that these vibrations do not simply function for species identity. These results suggest that male web-building spiders employ a phylogenetically conserved vibratory signal to ameliorate the risk of pre-copulatory cannibalism.
在求偶过程中，个体传递有关身份、交配状态和质量的信息。然而，雄性织网蜘蛛面临一个重大问题：如何在不被误认为猎物的情况下开始向雌性蜘蛛求偶？雄性蛛网蜘蛛在进入雌性蛛网时会产生独特的求偶振动（颤抖）。我们测试了求偶颤抖是否会延迟雌性的捕食行为，即使网中有活猎物。我们在颤抖振动的回放或白噪声中向雌性播放活蟋蟀，并将雌性对没有回放振动的活蟋蟀的控制反应进行比较。当播放颤抖振动时，雌性对蟋蟀的反应要慢得多。颤抖振动也延迟了相关蜘蛛物种的雌性捕食行为，表明这些振动不仅仅是用于物种识别。这些结果表明，雄性织网蜘蛛使用一种系统发育上保守的振动信号来减轻交配前被同类相食的风险。
