Sensory Traps, Imprinting, and Cross-contextual Learning: Can Shifting Food Preferences Alter Patterns of Mate Choice?

了解生物多样性是如何进化的，特别是突然的环境变化如何导致植物和动物的快速反应变化，是生物学的一个重要挑战。这项研究检验了一个简单而新颖的假设，来解释为什么这么多动物进化出了复杂的、看似任意的特征和颜色，并在求偶期间向未来的伴侣展示。这个项目使用了生物学和心理学多个领域的观点来检验这样一个观点，即在一种环境中习得的偏好（比如动物对某种特定颜色的食物的偏好）可以影响另一种环境中偏好的形成（比如在选择配偶时对同一种颜色的偏好）。这些想法将在两种跳蛛身上得到验证：一种是肯尼亚的跳蛛，它吃雌性蚊子（尤其是人类疟疾的传播媒介），喜欢吃红色的食物；另一种是美国的跳蛛，它以许多农业害虫为食，不吃红色的食物。工作将改变雌性对食物颜色的偏好，然后确定这是如何影响雌性寻找配偶的颜色的。这两种物种都在各自的食物网中发挥着关键作用；了解它们的种群如何对猎物的变化作出反应，对人类健康和农业具有重要意义。这项研究将吸引几名本科生研究人员，他们将通过实践经验学习科学过程。此外，它将资助几名非科学专业的学生参加当地社区大学，以提高其他领域（如政治、商业、教育）未来领导人的科学素养。除了传统的科学出版物，该团队还将在一个名为Arachnophilia的合作艺术展览中传播研究结果（将在美国和肯尼亚举行）。尽管经过近150年的研究，生物学家们了解了驱动精致的雄性观赏性状进化的机制，但他们经常在自然界中遇到令人困惑的模式，这些模式挑战了现有的理论（例如，配偶偏好的年度波动，观赏和偏好的意想不到的地理变化模式，以及看似任意的装饰的存在）。显然，目前的理论不能完全解释自然界的复杂性。这项研究整合了来自动物行为三种不同范式（感觉陷阱、性印记和跨情境学习）的观点。它提出了一种新的机制来解释雄性展示特征的快速进化：个体同类相食的雌性最近对彩色食物的经历会影响她对雄性彩色求爱展示的理解。尽管这个想法很简单，但它可以解释广泛的多样化模式，并适用于广泛的分类群。通过相关的实地研究和可操作的实验室实验，这一想法将在两种跳蛛身上进行测试：Evarcha culicivora（肯尼亚按蚊专家）和Habronattus pyrrithrix（来自美国西南部的通才捕食者）。这项研究通过让这两个物种接触不同种类的自然产生的彩色食物来逆转它们对猎物颜色的偏好，并评估它们对配偶偏好的后续影响。这项研究利用雄性跳蛛的魅力求爱表现，创造性地将研究、科学教育和推广联系起来。工作将由本科生研究团队（包括社区大学的非科学专业）完成，并将通过合作艺术展览进行传播。

Understanding how biodiversity evolves, and in particular, how sudden environmental changes can lead to rapid responsive changes in plants and animals is an important challenge in biology. This study examines a simple, yet novel, hypothesis to explain why so many animals have evolved elaborate and seemingly arbitrary traits and colors that they display to prospective mates during courtship. This project uses ideas from multiple fields of biology and psychology to test the idea that preferences learned in one context (such as a preference that an animal learns for a specific color of food) can affect the formation of preferences in another context (such as a preference for that same color when choosing a mate). These ideas will be tested in two species of jumping spiders: a Kenyan species that eats female mosquitoes (specifically, the vector of human malaria) where red colored food is preferred and an American species that feeds on many agricultural pests and where red colored food is avoided. Work will alter female food color preference and then determine how this impacts the colors that females look for in mates. Both of these species play critical roles in their respective food webs; understanding how their populations respond to changes in prey have important implications for human health and agriculture. The study will engage several undergraduate student researchers, who will learn the scientific process through hands-on experience. In addition, it will fund the participation of several non-science majors at a local community college to improve scientific literacy among future leaders in other fields (e.g., politics, business, education). In addition to traditional scientific publication, the team will also disseminate findings in a collaborative art exhibit entitled Arachnophilia (to take place in both the US and Kenya).Despite nearly 150 years of research to understand the mechanisms that drive the evolution of elaborate male ornamental traits biologists frequently stumble upon puzzling patterns in nature that challenge existing theory (e.g., yearly fluctuations in mate preferences, unexpected patterns of geographic variation in ornamentation and preference, and the presence of seemingly arbitrary ornaments). Clearly, the current theory falls short of fully explaining the complexity in nature. This study integrates ideas from across three distinct paradigms in animal behavior (sensory traps, sexual imprinting, and cross-contextual learning). It proposes a novel mechanism for the rapid evolution of male display traits: that an individual cannibalistic female's recent experiences with colorful food will shape how she interprets a male's colorful courtship display. Despite its simplicity, this idea could explain broad patterns of diversification and be applicable to a wide range of taxa. Using correlational field studies and manipulative lab experiments, this idea will be tested in two jumping spider species: Evarcha culicivora (a specialist on Anopheles mosquitoes in Kenya) and Habronattus pyrrithrix (a generalist predator from the southwestern USA). This study involves reversing the prey color preferences of these two species by exposing them to different types of naturally-occurring colorful foods and evaluating subsequent effects on mate preferences. This study capitalizes on the charismatic courtship displays of male jumping spiders to creatively link research, science education, and outreach. Work will be carried out by teams of undergraduate researchers (including non-science majors at a community college) and will be disseminated through a collaborative art exhibit.