Complex interactions between temperature, sexual signals, and mate choice in a desert-dwelling jumping spider

Environmental context is a crucial factor that influences sexual communication systems. Particularly in ectotherms, which cannot metabolically regulate their body temperature, temperature has an outsized effect on these intraspecific interactions. Using a desert-dwelling jumping spider Habronattus clypeatus, we assessed how temperature impacts various parts of the male signal and female mate choice for the signal. These spiders have multimodal, temporally-structured courtship displays that begin with visual-only “sidling” displays and proceed to multimodal visual and vibratory displays. In order to examine temperature effects, we performed no-choice mating experiments (n = 45 trials) at two temperature treatments: hot (~50 °C) and room temperature (~25 °C). We found first that variation in the different stages of courtship segregated onto different principal components. We also found that temperature impacts only vibratory courtship and not sidling courtship. The only aspect of male cou...

环境背景是影响性通讯系统的核心要素。对于无法通过代谢调节体温的变温动物（ectotherm）而言，温度对这类种内互动的影响尤为显著。本研究以栖息于沙漠的跳蛛Habronattus clypeatus为实验对象，探究温度如何影响雄性信号的多个维度以及雌性对该信号的配偶选择。该类蜘蛛拥有多模态、时间结构化的求偶行为序列：初始阶段为仅依赖视觉的‘侧行（sidling）’展示，后续阶段则切换为视觉与振动结合的多模态展示。为探究温度的影响效应，我们设置了高温（约50℃）与室温（约25℃）两个温度处理组，并开展了无选择交配实验（共45组重复）。研究首先发现，求偶不同阶段的变异可分离至不同的主成分中；同时还发现，温度仅对振动型求偶行为存在影响，而对侧行求偶行为无显著作用。雄性求偶行为的唯一维度……