Schmid A
Biozentrum, Institut fur Zoologie, Universitat Wien, Wien, Austria.
J Exp Biol. 1998 Jan;201(Pt 2):221-5. doi: 10.1242/jeb.201.2.221.
The Central American hunting spider Cupiennius salei Keys relies mainly on its mechanosensory systems during prey-catching and mating behaviour. The behavioural relevance of its eight eyes has not been studied before, although their optics and sensitivity suggest highly developed visual capabilities. The visual system was examined in a twofold simultaneous-choice experiment. Two targets were presented at a distance of 2 m from the animals, and their walking paths towards the targets were monitored. Spiders showed no preference when choosing between two identical targets, but when choosing between two different targets they strongly preferred a vertical bar to a sloping bar or a V-shaped target. By covering all eyes except the anterior median or posterior median eyes, it could be shown that the spiders were able to detect the targets using any of the eyes. Discrimination between different targets was only possible with the anterior median eyes uncovered, although the visual fields of the anterior median and posterior median eyes overlap completely. It seems most likely that the animals separate visual information in the periphery and therefore that the eyes have different functions. The posterior median eyes support a target-detecting mechanism and the anterior median eyes a target-discrimination mechanism.
中美洲狩猎蜘蛛卡氏栉足蛛（Cupiennius salei Keys）在捕食和交配行为中主要依赖其机械感觉系统。尽管其眼睛的光学结构和敏感度表明其视觉能力高度发达，但此前尚未对其八只眼睛的行为相关性进行过研究。在一项双重同时选择实验中对其视觉系统进行了检查。在距离蜘蛛2米处呈现两个目标，并监测它们朝向目标的行走路径。当在两个相同目标之间进行选择时，蜘蛛没有表现出偏好，但当在两个不同目标之间进行选择时，它们强烈偏好垂直条而非倾斜条或V形目标。通过覆盖除前中眼或后中眼之外的所有眼睛，可以发现蜘蛛能够使用任何一只眼睛检测目标。只有在前中眼未被覆盖时，才能区分不同目标，尽管前中眼和后中眼的视野完全重叠。很可能动物在外围分离视觉信息，因此眼睛具有不同的功能。后中眼支持目标检测机制，前中眼支持目标辨别机制。
