How Hot is too Hot? Metabolic Responses to Temperature Across Life Stages of a Small Ectotherm.

To understand how global warming will impact biodiversity, we need to pay attention to those species with higher vulnerability. However, to assess vulnerability, we also need to consider the thermoregulatory mechanisms, body size, and thermal tolerance of species. Studies addressing thermal tolerance on small ectotherms have mostly focused on insects, while other arthropods, such as arachnids remain understudied.

Influence of ambient water coloration on habitat and conspecific choice in the female Lake Malawi cichlid, .

Female cichlid fish living in African great lakes are known to have sensory systems that are adapted to ambient light environments. These sensory system adaptations are hypothesized to have influenced the evolution of the diverse male nuptial coloration. In rock-dwelling Lake Malawi cichlids, however, the extent to which ambient light environments influence female sensory systems and potentially associated male nuptial coloration remains unknown.

Vibroscape analysis reveals acoustic niche overlap and plastic alteration of vibratory courtship signals in ground-dwelling wolf spiders.

To expand the scope of soundscape ecology to encompass substrate-borne vibrations (i.e. vibroscapes), we analyzed the vibroscape of a deciduous forest floor using contact microphone arrays followed by automated processing of large audio datasets.

Could sexual selection be driven by the mistaken inferences of young females?

A new evolutionary model of mate choice copying, published in PLOS Biology, aims to reconcile mismatches between theory and data by proposing that juvenile females mistakenly imprint on male phenotypes that were not in fact preferred by the female they copied.

Investigating boundary-geometry use by whip spiders (Phrynus marginemaculatus) during goal-directed navigation.

Previous studies have shown that whip spiders (Amblypygi) can use a variety of cues to navigate to and recognize a home refuge. The current study aimed to determine whether whip spiders were capable of using the boundary geometry of an experimental space (geometric information) to guide goal-directed navigation and to investigate any preferential use of geometric or feature (visual) information. Animals were first trained to find a goal location situated in one corner of a rectangular arena (geometric information) fronting a dark-green-colored wall, which created a brightness contrast with the other three white walls (feature information).

Light Environment Interacts with Visual Displays in a Species-Specific Manner in Multimodal-Signaling Wolf Spiders.

AbstractLight availability is highly variable, yet predictable, over various timescales and is expected to play an important role in the evolution of visual signals. Courtship displays of the wolf spider genus always involve the use of substrate-borne vibrations; however, there is substantial variation in the presence and complexity of visual displays among species. To gain insight into the role the light environment plays in the evolution of courtship displays, we tested the function of visual courtship signaling across distinct light environments in four species of that vary in their degree of ornamentation and dynamic visual signals.

Comparative biology of spatial navigation in three arachnid orders (Amblypygi, Araneae, and Scorpiones).

From both comparative biology and translational research perspectives, there is escalating interest in understanding how animals navigate their environments. Considerable work is being directed towards understanding the sensory transduction and neural processing of environmental stimuli that guide animals to, for example, food and shelter. While much has been learned about the spatial orientation behavior, sensory cues, and neurophysiology of champion navigators such as bees and ants, many other, often overlooked animal species possess extraordinary sensory and spatial capabilities that can broaden our understanding of the behavioral and neural mechanisms of animal navigation.

Mate Sampling Behavior Determines the Density Dependence of Sexual Selection.

AbstractTheory predicts that the strength of sexual selection (i.e., how well a trait predicts mating or fertilization success) should increase with population density, yet empirical support remains mixed.

Increased signal complexity is associated with increased mating success.

The evolution of complex signals has often been explored by testing multiple functional hypotheses regarding how independent signal components provide selective benefits to offset the costs of their production. In the present study, we take a different approach by exploring the function of complexity . We test the hypothesis that increased vibratory signal complexity-based on both proportional and temporal patterning-provides selective benefits to courting male wolf spiders.

Exploring Higher-Order Conceptual Learning in an Arthropod with a Large Multisensory Processing Center.

Comparative cognition aims to understand the evolutionary history and current function of cognitive abilities in a variety of species with diverse natural histories. One characteristic often attributed to higher cognitive abilities is higher-order conceptual learning, such as the ability to learn concepts independent of stimuli-e.g.

Phylogeny and secondary sexual trait evolution in Schizocosa wolf spiders (Araneae, Lycosidae) shows evidence for multiple gains and losses of ornamentation and species delimitation uncertainty.

Members of the Nearctic spider genus Schizocosa Chamberlin, 1904 have garnered much attention in behavioral studies and over many decades, a number of species have developed as model systems for investigating patterns of sexual selection and multimodal communication. Many of these studies have employed a comparative approach using putative, but not rigorously tested, sister species pairs that have distinctive morphological traits and attendant behaviors. Despite past emphasis on the efficacy of these presumably comparative-based studies of closely related species, generating a robust phylogenetic hypothesis for Schizocosa has been an ongoing challenge.

Visual control of refuge recognition in the whip spider Phrynus marginemaculatus.

Amblypygids, or whip spiders, are nocturnally active arachnids which live in structurally complex environments. Whip spiders are excellent navigators that can re-locate a home refuge without relying on visual input. Therefore, an open question is whether visual input can control any aspect of whip spider spatial behavior.

Identification and quantification of 11 airborne biochemicals emitted by the brown recluse and another primitive hunting spider using headspace solid-phase microextraction-GC/MS.

Loxosceles reclusa, or brown recluse spider, is a harmful household spider whose habitat extends throughout the Midwest in the USA and other regions in the world. The pheromones and other biomolecules that facilitate signaling for brown recluses and other spider species are poorly understood. A rapid and sensitive method is needed to analyze airborne spider signaling biomolecules to better understand the structure and function of these biochemicals in order to control the population of the spiders.

The brain transcriptome of the wolf spider, Schizocosa ocreata.

Objectives: Arachnids have fascinating and unique biology, particularly for questions on sex differences and behavior, creating the potential for development of powerful emerging models in this group. Recent advances in genomic techniques have paved the way for a significant increase in the breadth of genomic studies in non-model organisms. One growing area of research is comparative transcriptomics.

Sister species diverge in modality-specific courtship signal form and function.

Understanding the relative importance of different sources of selection (e.g., the environment, social/sexual selection) on the divergence or convergence of reproductive communication can shed light on the origin, maintenance, or even disappearance of species boundaries.

Multisensory integration supports configural learning of a home refuge in the whip spider .

Whip spiders (Amblypygi) reside in structurally complex habitats and are nocturnally active yet display notable navigational abilities. From the theory that uncertainty in sensory inputs should promote multisensory representations to guide behavior, we hypothesized that their navigation is supported by a multisensory and perhaps configural representation of navigational inputs, an ability documented in a few insects and never reported in arachnids. We trained to recognize a home shelter characterized by both discriminative olfactory and tactile stimuli.

Ogre-Faced, Net-Casting Spiders Use Auditory Cues to Detect Airborne Prey.

Prey capture behavior among spiders varies greatly from passive entrapment in webs to running down prey items on foot. Somewhere in the middle are the ogre-faced, net-casting spiders [1] (Deinopidae: Deinopis) that actively capture prey while being suspended within a frame web [2-5]. Using a net held between their front four legs, these spiders lunge downward to ensnare prey from off the ground beneath them.

Vertical-surface navigation in the Neotropical whip spider Paraphrynus laevifrons (Arachnida: Amblypygi).

Studies on whip spider navigation have focused on their ability to locate goal locations in the horizontal plane (e.g., when moving along the ground).

Ecophysiological determinants of sexual size dimorphism: integrating growth trajectories, environmental conditions, and metabolic rates.

Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) often results in dramatic differences in body size between females and males. Despite its ecological importance, little is known about the relationship between developmental, physiological, and energetic mechanisms underlying SSD. We take an integrative approach to understand the relationship between developmental trajectories, metabolism, and environmental conditions resulting in extreme female-biased SSD in the crab spider Mecaphesa celer (Thomisidae).

Contemporary sexual selection does not explain variation in male display traits among populations.

Sexual selection is widely hypothesized to facilitate the evolution of reproductive isolation through divergence in sexual traits and sexual trait preferences among populations. However, direct evidence of divergent sexual selection causing intraspecific trait divergence remains limited. Using the wolf spider Schizocosa crassipes, we characterized patterns of female mate choice within and among geographic locations and related those patterns to geographic variation in male display traits to test whether divergent sexual selection caused by mate choice explains intraspecific trait variation.

Male attraction to female airborne cues by the net-casting spider, Deinopis spinosa.

For many animals, finding a mate can be a difficult task. For males, it often involves actively searching for conspecific females, sometimes over great distances. This mate-searching can be aided through chemical or visual signals or cues produced by sexually receptive females.

Using cross-disciplinary knowledge to facilitate advancements in animal communication and science communication research.

Although humans may have more nuanced reasons for communicating - e.g. to teach or inform, to share or change opinions or attitudes - all animals engage in communication with members of their own as well as other species, and there are more similarities than differences between non-human and human communication.

A Probable Case of Incipient Speciation in Schizocosa Wolf Spiders Driven by Allochrony, Habitat Use, and Female Mate Choice.

There is growing evidence that speciation can occur between populations that are not geographically isolated. The emergence of assortative mating is believed to be critical to this process, but how assortative mating arises in diverging populations is poorly understood. The wolf spider genus Schizocosa has become a model system for studying mechanisms of assortative mating.