Consequences of complex signaling: predator detection of multimodal cues
By J. Roberts, Phillip W. Taylor, G. Uetz. 2007
134 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Animals often evolve complex signals to enhance their detectability by intended receivers. But signals that are more detectable by intended receivers may also be more likely to be intercepted by others, including predators. Courtship signaling in male Schizocosa ocreata wolf spiders (Lycosidae) includes morphological traits (prominent foreleg tufts) and active behaviors that together produce a complex signal with simultaneous broadcast of visual and seismic components. Females respond more readily to males with large tufts and are more likely to respond when multiple modalities (visual and seismic) are present in a complex signal. These spiders cooccur with active predators that may intercept these conspicuous courtship signals and use them as hunting cues. We used video/seismic playback to experimentally isolate and manipulate aspects of the complex signal produced by male S. ocreata. We found that increasing the size of a visual signal (male tufts) and increasing the complexity of the courtship signal by adding a second modality (visual plus seismic versus visual alone) increased the speed with which a common predator, the jumping spider Phidippus clarus (Salticidae), responded to playbacks of courting male S. ocreata. These results indicate that the benefits of increased signaling efficacy of large visual signaling ornaments and complex, multimodal signaling may be countered by increased predation risks. Copyright 2007.
Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7e5daa96c00d2c1a246a2e3d14c049532c4654e7
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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
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Citations in the corpus
- Multimodal communication and mate choice in wolf spiders: female response to multimodal versus unimodal signals (2009, background): “Multimodal signalling has been studied extensively in several species within the genus Schizocosa (Scheffer et al. 1996; Miller et al. 1998; Hebets & Uetz 1999, 2000; Uetz 2000; Uetz & Roberts 2002; Hebets 2005; Taylor et al. 2005, 2006a, b; Elias et al. 2006; Hebets et al. 2006, 2008; Roberts et a”
- Multisensory perception in uncertain environments (2012, unknown): “However, our framework should also apply to any ecological situation, such as communication, other predator–prey interactions (Roberts et al. 2007; Cross and Jackson 2009; Bassett and Montgomery 2011), interactions with abiotic aspects of the environment (Johnson and Borgo 1976), or cued phenotypic ”
- Wild tree squirrels respond with multisensory enhancement to conspecific robot alarm behaviour. (2009, unknown): “In addition, from the predator’s point of view, Roberts et al. (2007) found that predatory jumping spiders attack more quickly if the prey, simulated by playback of signals from wolf spiders, uses multiple sensory channels to communicate than if the prey uses just one channel.”