Visual Communication and Species Recognition

动物之间使用各种信号进行交流，进化导致了物种特有识别机制的巨大多样性。物种识别是至关重要的，特别是在交配过程中，因为错误可能会导致生殖努力的丧失，或者(对于捕食性动物来说)甚至死亡。这项研究关注的是动物在求偶和交配过程中如何识别自己物种的成员，并利用视觉信号将他们与其他物种区分开来。一项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是如何进化的。由于蜘蛛可能会自相残杀，物种识别机制对生存和繁殖成功都至关重要。因此，识别是与生俱来的，并基于简单的行为线索。在计划中的实验中，雄性蜘蛛求偶的视觉信号(身体装饰和行为)将通过计算机数字化和视频动画进行改变，然后在微型电视屏幕上呈现给雌性蜘蛛。雌性蜘蛛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的音频录音的组合，将检验有关物种识别线索的假设。这项研究的结果将使我们更好地了解动物物种识别的机制。这项研究还将有助于人们对蜘蛛的了解不断增长，蜘蛛是一种具有重要生态意义的无脊椎动物捕食者，其基本生物学比其他类群了解得更少。此外，这项研究还包括继续开发一种计算机辅助技术，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).