Complex courtship displays facilitate male reproductive success and plasticity in signaling across variable environments

Abstract

Effective signal transmission is essential for communication. In environments where signal transmission is highly variable, signalers may utilize complex signals, which incorporate multiple components and modalities, to maintain effective communication. Male Rabidosa rabida wolf spiders produce complex courtship signals, consisting of both visual and seismic components. We test the hypothesis that the complex signaling of R. rabida contributes to male reproductive success in variable signaling environments. We first examine the condition-dependence of foreleg ornamentation (a presumed visual signal) and seismic signal components and find that both may provide potentially redundant information on foraging history. Next, we assessed reproductive success across manipulated signaling environments that varied in the effectiveness of visual and/or seismic signal transmission. In environments where only one signal could be successfully transmitted (e.g., visual or seismic), pairs were still able to successfully copulate. Additionally, we found that males altered their courtship display depending on the current signaling environment. Specifically, males reduced their use of a visual display component in signaling environments where visual signal transmission was ablated. Incorporating signals in multiple modalities not only enables R. rabida males to maintain copulation success across variable signaling environments, but it also enables males to adjust their composite courtship display to current signaling conditions.

A systems approach to animal communication

“…Thus, the relationship between the intensity of a signal component (visible brush size) and the behavioural response (likelihood to mate) is altered across display compositions (presence/absence of vibratory signal); and the vibratory signal interacts with a visual component (sensu [4]). Similar composition, environment, and receiver-dependent functions of complex signal components are found in other wolf spiders [38][39][40][41][42].…”

Biased learning affects mate choice in a butterfly

“…Although naïve females appear to weigh presence or absence of visual and olfactory signals equally when males are matched in age (34), it is unknown whether this weighting can be changed by premating social experience. Both early exposure and shifts in relative signal conspicuousness are known to alter the relative weighting of olfactory and visual signals in mate preference in wolf spiders, damselflies, and fruitflies (13,14,37,38). Exposure to a male with an enhanced visual signal could cause females to later overemphasize the visual component of male display relative to all other signals, but exposure to a male with fewer visual signals could cause females to later emphasize pheromones or other as yet unexplored signals.…”

Dangerous mating systems: Signal complexity, signal content and neural capacity in spiders

“…For example, a female's attention to visual signal components is modified by the presence/absence of vibratory signaling (Hebets, 2005;Stafstrom and Hebets, 2013) and her choice of mates can be dependent upon an interaction between the signaling environment and a male's foraging history (Rundus et al, 2011). Additionally, males of some wolf spider species (Rabidosa rabida and Schizocosa ocreata) are known to be flexible in the composition of their courtship displays, adjusting the make-up of display components dependent upon current signaling environments (Taylor et al, 2005;Wilgers and Hebets, 2011). Surprisingly, despite the wealth of behavioral mate choice data in this system little is known about the peripheral or central processing of courtship signals or their modality-specific reliance during foraging.…”

“…In S. ocreata, both frequency and temporal components were good predictors of female receptivity displays Uetz, 2008, 2012), while female H. rubrofasiata preferred male drums of longer duration, with no influence of pulse rate on female choice (Parri et al, 2002). In other wolf spiders (Schizocosa floridana and R. rabida), components of both visual and vibratory signals were also condition-dependent (Rundus et al, 2011;Wilgers and Hebets, 2011). Curiously, however, in S. floridana, female mate choice was only dependent upon these condition-dependent signals under certain environmental conditions.…”