Taylor Lisa A, Powell Erin C, McGraw Kevin J
Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Apr 5;12(4):e0173156. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173156. eCollection 2017.
Male courtship display is common in many animals; in some cases, males engage in courtship indiscriminately, spending significant time and energy courting heterospecifics with whom they have no chance of mating or producing viable offspring. Due to high costs and few if any benefits, we might expect mechanisms to evolve to reduce such misdirected courtship (or 'reproductive interference'). In Habronattus jumping spiders, males frequently court heterospecifics with whom they do not mate or hybridize; females are larger and are voracious predators, posing a severe risk to males who court indiscriminately. In this study, we examined patterns of misdirected courtship in a natural community of four sympatric Habronattus species (H. clypeatus, H. hallani, H. hirsutus, and H. pyrrithrix). We used direct field observations to weigh support for two hypotheses (differential microhabitat use and species recognition signaling) to explain how these species reduce the costs associated with misdirected courtship. We show that, while the four species of Habronattus do show some differences in microhabitat use, all four species still overlap substantially, and in three of the four species individuals equally encountered heterospecifics and conspecifics. Males courted females at every opportunity, regardless of species, and in some cases, this led to aggression and predation by the female. These results suggest that, while differences in microhabitat use might reduce misdirected courtship to some extent, co-existence of these four species may be possible due to complex communication (i.e. species-specific elements of a male's courtship display). This study is the first to examine misdirected courtship in jumping spiders. Studies of misdirected courtship and its consequences in the field are limited and may broaden our understanding of how biodiversity is maintained within a community.
雄性求偶行为在许多动物中都很常见；在某些情况下，雄性会不加区分地进行求偶，花费大量时间和精力向那些它们没有机会交配或产生可存活后代的异种求偶。由于成本高昂且几乎没有任何益处，我们可能会预期会进化出一些机制来减少这种错误导向的求偶行为（或“生殖干扰”）。在哈氏跳蛛中，雄性经常向它们不会与之交配或杂交的异种求偶；雌性体型更大，是贪婪的捕食者，对不加区分地进行求偶的雄性构成严重风险。在本研究中，我们调查了四种同域分布的哈氏跳蛛物种（圆盾哈氏跳蛛、哈氏哈氏跳蛛、多毛哈氏跳蛛和红毛哈氏跳蛛）的自然群落中错误导向求偶行为的模式。我们通过直接的野外观察来权衡对两个假说（不同的微生境利用和物种识别信号）的支持程度，以解释这些物种如何降低与错误导向求偶相关的成本。我们发现，虽然这四种哈氏跳蛛在微生境利用上确实存在一些差异，但所有四个物种的微生境仍有很大重叠，并且在四个物种中的三个物种中，个体遇到异种和同种的几率是相同的。雄性会抓住一切机会向雌性求偶，而不考虑物种，在某些情况下，这会导致雌性的攻击和捕食。这些结果表明，虽然微生境利用的差异可能在一定程度上减少错误导向的求偶行为，但这四个物种能够共存可能是由于复杂的通讯方式（即雄性求偶展示中的物种特异性元素）。本研究首次调查了跳蛛中的错误导向求偶行为。对错误导向求偶行为及其在野外的后果的研究有限，可能会拓宽我们对群落中生物多样性如何维持的理解。
