Limb displays of male Saitis barbipes (Simon, 1868) (Araneae: Salticidae)

摘要

In order to understand fully sexual signalling in nature, researchers need to study sexual signalling in a wide range of species. Salticids have been used in studies of sexual signalling because of their elaborate and conspicuous courtship displays. Here, we describe in detail the leg III displays of male Saitis barbipes, a common Mediterranean salticid in the subfamily Euophryinae. We describe the use of different displays that are specific to the sex of an encountered conspecific. We classified theindividual elements of these displays into 10 distinct gestures. Of these, eight were shown exclusively to the female, and two were shown to both sexes. Of the eight gestures shown to females only, six were used exclusively in what we call the courtshipdance. We present the order of these gestures for each courtship display we observed. Courtship displays had a significantly higher gesture frequency than non-courtship displays to the female or agonistic displays to the male. This supports existing hypotheses that courtship displays should be costly. Our findings and gesture classifications provide a valuable background for future analysis of sexual signalling in S. barbipes.