Comparing spiders’ color signal discrimination abilities in long wavelength range

• Main Authors: Cheng-Ya Chang, 張承雅
• Other Authors: I-Min Tso
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/jh8dt2

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 生命科學系所 === 101 === Many jumping spider species have brilliant body color and are sexually dichromatic. In addition, jumping spiders also have high spatial resolution. Previous studies predicted that most jumping spiders had four types of photoreceptors in their principal eyes and had a much broader spectral sensitivity range, and some species had long wavelength photoreceptors. Therefore, they may have better color vision than that of the other spider taxa. In this study, I used three jumping spider species including Ptocasius strupifer, Telamonia festiva and Myrmarachne magnus. Both P. strupifer and T. festiva had brilliant body color and sexual dichromatism, while M. magnus had dull body color and without sexual dichromatism. In addition, I also used two lynx spider species including Oxyopes macilentus and Oxyopes sertatus. In this study, I tested whether jumping spiders with brilliant body color had long wavelength color discrimination ability, while jumping spiders with dull coloration such as ant-mimicking species and non-salticid taxa such as lynx spiders did not have long wavelength color discrimination ability. I used the heat-avoidance response of spiders to train them to learn the heat-associated colored papers. Video cameras were used to record the time spiders stayed in each type of papers. Results of my study showed that females of jumping spiders with brilliant body color have long wavelength color discrimination ability. However, males of jumping spiders with brilliant body color, jumping spiders with dull body color and lynx spiders did not have long wavelength color discrimination ability. Such results suggest that female jumping spiders might have long wavelength color discrimination ability to assess the quality of the courting males by their body colors.