This week I will talk about animal that would not immediately
come to most people’s minds when discussing elaborate courtship displays. It is
the Peacock spider, Maratus volans.
Although male jumping spiders are known for being quite
ornamented compared to the female, peacock spiders, which are endemic to Australia,
are an exceptional example. When courting, a male peacock spider will display his
brightly coloured opisthosomal flaps that usually stay tucked away around its
abdomen. This will be waved around in synchrony with a pair of ornamental legs
to impress the female.
A study on the courting behaviour of the male peacock spider
however, has found that they employ a multi-modal signalling structure i.e.
using multiple tactics when trying to impress. In particular the study showed
that the males use visual cues and vibratory modalities in their display. As
far as visual displays, certain behaviours were observed such as pedipalp
flicker, opisthosomal bobbing, 3rd leg wave, fan dance, fan-flapping,
and pre-mount display.
These behaviours can be observed in the accompanying video
where we see one of these amazing courtship displays taking place.
References
Girard MB, Kasumovic MM, Elias DO.2011. Multi-Modal Courtship in the Peacock Spider, Maratus volans. PLoS one 6(9): e25390.
Very interesting. Loved the video! Do females respond to all signals in the multi-modal complex, or do they only respond to the coloured opisthosomal flaps? If they are only responding to some of the signals, this raises the interesting question of what the female really “perceives” and how she chooses to respond as a result.
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