Frequent misdirected courtship in a natural community of colorful Habronattus jumping spiders
Frequent misdirected courtship in a natural community of colorful Habronattus jumping spiders
复制标题
在色彩缤纷的 Habronattus 跳蛛自然群落中，频繁出现错误求偶行为
作者：
L. Taylor;E. Powell;K. McGraw
雄性求偶在许多动物中很常见；在某些情况下，雄性不加选择地求爱，花大量的时间和精力追求异性，而他们没有机会与之交配或产生可存活的后代。由于成本高而收益少，我们可能会期待机制的进化来减少这种错误的求爱（或“生殖干扰”）。在Habronattus跳蛛中，雄性经常向不与之交配或杂交的异种蜘蛛求爱；雌性体型较大，是贪婪的掠食者，对不加选择地求爱的雄性构成了严重的风险。在这项研究中，我们研究了四种同域Habronattus物种（H. clypeatus， H. hallani， H. hirsutus和H. pyrrithrix）的自然群落中的错误求爱模式。我们使用直接的实地观察来权衡两种假设（微栖息地的差异利用和物种识别信号）的支持，以解释这些物种如何减少与错误求爱相关的成本。研究表明，尽管四种Habronattus在微生境利用上存在一定差异，但四种物种仍有大量重叠，并且在四种物种中，有三种个体同样遇到异种和同种。不管是什么物种，雄性都会抓住每一个机会向雌性求爱，在某些情况下，这会导致雌性的攻击和捕食。这些结果表明，虽然微生境使用的差异可能在一定程度上减少了错误的求爱，但由于复杂的交流（即雄性求爱表现的物种特异性元素），这四种物种可能共存。这项研究首次对跳蛛的错误求爱行为进行了研究。在野外对误导求爱及其后果的研究是有限的，这可能会扩大我们对生物多样性如何在一个群落中维持的理解。
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.