Habitat complexity and complex signal function – exploring the role of ornamentation

Animals often communicate in complex, heterogeneous environments, leading to hypothesized selection for increased detectability or discriminability in signaling traits. The extent to which secondary sexual ornaments have evolved to overcome the challenges of signaling in complex environments, however, remains understudied, especially in comparison to their role as indicator traits. This study tested the hypothesis that the condition-dependent secondary sexual ornamentation in the wolf spider Rabidosa rabida functions to increase detectability/discriminability in visually complex environments. We predicted that male ornamentation would interact with the complexity of the signaling environment to affect male mating success. In particular, we expected ornaments to confer a greater mating advantage when males courted in visually complex environments. To test this, we artificially manipulated male foreleg ornamentation (present/absent) and ran repeated-measures mating trials across laborator...

动物常在复杂异质的环境中进行通讯，由此催生了学界关于通讯信号性状需提升可检测性与可辨别性的选择假说。然而，相较于第二性征饰器作为指示性状的功能，其演化以应对复杂环境中通讯挑战的相关研究仍较为匮乏。本研究针对如下假说开展检验：拉比多沙狼蛛（Rabidosa rabida）中依赖个体状态的第二性征装饰结构，其功能是提升视觉复杂环境中的信号可检测性与可辨别性。我们预测，雄性的装饰结构会与通讯环境的复杂度相互作用，进而影响雄性的交配成功率。具体而言，我们推测当雄性在视觉复杂度较高的环境中求偶时，这类装饰结构将为其带来更强的交配优势。为验证上述假说，我们对雄性狼蛛的前足装饰结构进行了人工操控（存在/移除），并在实验室环境中开展了重复测量的交配实验……