Sex Role–Dependent Behavioral and Architectural Divergence in a Jumping Spider

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  Sex Role–Dependent Behavioral and Architectural Divergence in a Jumping Spider ABSTRACT Sex differences in behavior and functional traits are often attributed to differences in mating effort intensity, but the role of sex-specific parental demands remains poorly understood. Using the jumping spider Toxeus maxillosus —where males engage in mate searching and courtship without providing parental care, while females provide extended maternal care from egg attendance to offspring maturity (around 3 months)—we conducted an exploratory investigation into whether these distinct selective pressures led to divergence in spatial behaviors and nest architecture. Results revealed that males and females showed equivalent accuracy, latency, and learning-related performance in both a route-planning test under water stress and a color-pattern associative memory task. In contrast, during nest-construction assays, females built complex, multi-entrance structures that closely matched the container'...

Weathering the storm for love: Mate searching behaviour of wild males of the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus)

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Weathering the storm for love: Mate searching behaviour of wild males of the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus)

    Abstract

The risky business of mate-searching often leaves the actively searching sex facing threats and rapidly changing conditions. Yet, active mate-searching behaviour is rarely studied in invertebrates, and we have limited understanding of how mate-searching strategies have evolved to cope with risks posed by harsh weather. We investigated how mate-searching males move through their habitat and how their movement is affected by weather conditions in the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus), one of the world's most venomous spiders. As is common in mygalomorphs spiders, females are functionally sessile, and are thought to spend their whole lives in a single burrow, whereas males must permanently abandon their burrows to mate during the breeding season. Nineteen male spiders were fitted with micro-radio transmitters and tracked during their mating seasons in 2020 (n = 2), 2021 (n = 8) and 2022 (n = 9) in Lane Cove National Park, in Sydney, Australia. Males moved at night, typically in a zig-zag pattern, and were found in new locations on approximately 50% of daily resighting's. Males often spent several days in a female's burrow, and some female burrows were visited by multiple males. When outside a female's burrow, males constructed and occupied temporary shelters ('temporacula'). Males were most likely to move and/or moved furthest when there was no rain, and on warm nights after cool days. Our findings suggest that mate-searching A. robustus males prefer to search for females in less risky conditions, revealing novel risk-minimizing strategies, especially in response to rainfall and temperature.


Weathering the storm for love: Mate searching behaviour of wild males of the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atrax robustus) Caitlin Nicole Creak, Hugo Muirhead, Russell Bonduriansky, Michael Kasumovic, Bruno Buzatto 

bioRxiv 2024.07.23.604707; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.23.604707