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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on November 21, 2006
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arl079
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received December 12, 2005
Revised September 18, 2006
Accepted October 5, 2006

Article

Consequences of complex signaling: predator detection of multimodal cues

J. Andrew Roberts 1 *, Phillip W. Taylor 2, and George W. Uetz 3

1 Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University at Newark, Newark, OH 43055, USA
2 Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
3 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Andrew Roberts, E-mail: roberts.762{at}osu.edu


  Abstract

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.

Keywords: complex signals; Lycosidae; playback; predation; Salticidae; spider.
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