Visual Communication and Species Recognition

动物使用各种信号相互交流，进化导致了物种特异性识别机制的巨大多样性。 物种识别是至关重要的，特别是在交配中，因为错误可能导致繁殖努力的损失，甚至（在掠食性动物的情况下）死亡。 这项研究涉及的问题是，动物如何识别自己的物种成员，并在求爱和交配过程中使用视觉信号将它们与其他物种区分开来。 一种新开发的视频成像技术将用于了解视觉信号在狼蛛交配过程中的作用，以及物种之间的差异如何演变。 由于蜘蛛具有潜在的同类相食性，物种识别机制对生存和繁殖成功至关重要。 因此，识别是与生俱来的，基于简单的行为线索。 在计划中的实验中，求爱雄性的视觉信号（身体装饰和行为）将使用计算机数字化和视频动画来改变，然后在微型电视屏幕上呈现给雌性蜘蛛。 女性对自己物种和其他物种的视频图像的反应，以及视频图像与蜘蛛求偶振动“歌曲”的音频记录的组合，将测试有关物种识别的线索的假设。 这项研究的结果将有助于更好地了解动物物种识别的机制。 这项研究也将有助于增加对蜘蛛的了解，蜘蛛是一种生态上重要的无脊椎动物捕食者，其基本生物学比其他类群知之甚少。 此外，这项研究还涉及计算机辅助技术的持续发展，用于研究可能适用于其他物种的行为和动物行为（配偶选择，竞争行为，视觉感知，神经行为学）和其他领域（图像识别，人工智能）的研究问题。

Animals use a variety of signals to communicate with each other, and evolution has resulted in an enormous diversity of species-specific recognition mechanisms. Species recognition is critical, especially in mating, because mistakes can result in loss of reproductive effort, or (in the case of predatory animals) even death. This research concerns the question of how animals recognize members of their own species and discriminate them from other species using visual signals during courtship and mating. A newly developed video imaging technique will be used to understand how visual signals function in the mating process of wolf spiders, and how differences between species evolve. Because spiders are potentially cannibalistic, species recognition mechanisms are critical to survival as well as reproductive success. As a consequence, recognition is innate and based on simple behavioral cues. In the planned experiments, visual signals of courting males (body ornaments and behaviors) will be altered using computer digitization and video animation, then presented to female spiders on microtelevision screens. Responses of females to video images of their own species and those of other species, and combinations of video images with audio recordings of spider courtship vibration "songs", will test hypotheses about the cues involved in species recognition. Results of this research will allow a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in species recognition in animals. This research will also contribute to the growing knowledge about spiders, an ecologically important group of invertebrate predators whose basic biology is less known than other taxa. Additionally, this research involves the continuing development of a computer-assisted technique for studying behavior which may be applicable to other species and research questions in animal behavior (mate choice, agonistic behavior, visual perception, neuroethology) and other fields (image recogn ition, artificial intelligence).