Crab Spider Lures Prey In Flowerless Neighborhoods.

One fundamental question in prey luring systems is to understand how visual signals are interpreted by the receiver. Predators lure prey by falsely imitating the signal of a model, or may exploit sensory preferences of the receivers, which search for rewarding signals. Crab spiders reflect ultraviolet (UV) light, ambush pollinators on flowers, and manipulate flower UV signals altering the behavior and response of prey.

Sound is involved in multimodal communication of Loxosceles intermedia Mello-Leitão, 1934 (Araneae; Sicariidae).

Signals of different modalities are involved during courtship of the brown spider Loxosceles intermedia. A spine on the pedipalp is rubbed against the grooves on the retrolateral region of the chelicerae producing stridulatory signals, which have a dominant frequency of the airborne component range around 770 Hz for females and around 170 Hz for males. These values are significantly lower for the substrate-borne component.