Much of our knowledge regarding the role of chemicals in species recognition in arthropods is based on a few taxonomic groups, predominantly insect pest species. To investigate the chemical underpinnings of species recognition cues in other arthropods, we conducted mate choice experiments and analyzed the chemical profiles of two species in the long-jawed spider genus Tetragnatha from allopatric populations across two different continents. In two separate bioassays, in which male T. extensa spiders were presented with either web silk or extracts from the silk of conspecific and heterospecific females, males consistently chose the silk or silk extract of conspecific females over those of heterospecifics. We examined the chemistry affecting this response using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to analyze silk and whole-body extracts of the spiders. The major compounds in the extracts were identified as long chain aliphatic methyl ethers. The chemical profiles of the two species differed: the T. extensa profile consisted of 12,20-dimethylnonacosyl methyl ether (A), 8,14,20-trimethylnonacosyl methyl ether (B), and 6,14,20-trimethylnonacosyl methyl ether (C), while the profile of T. versicolor consisted of B and 14,20-dimethylnonacosyl methyl ether (D). Within each species, chemical profiles of females and males did not differ. Our results suggest that these methyl ethers are involved in species recognition of Tetragnatha spiders. This is the first study to propose compounds involved in species recognition in spiders.

关于化学物质在节肢动物的物种识别中的作用方面，我们的许多知识都是基于几个分类学类别的，主要是害虫。为了研究其他节肢动物中物种识别线索的化学基础，我们进行了配偶选择实验，并分析了来自两个不同大陆的异特异种群的长颚蜘蛛蜘蛛纲四足纲动物中两个物种的化学特征。在两个单独的生物测定中，其中男性T.蜘蛛被提供了网状丝或同种和异种雌性丝的提取物，雄性始终选择同种雌性的丝或丝提取物而不是异种。我们使用气相色谱/质谱分析了蜘蛛丝和全身提取物，研究了影响这一反应的化学物质。提取物中的主要化合物被鉴定为长链脂族甲基醚。两种物种的化学特征不同：T .延伸特征由12,20-二甲基壬二甲基甲醚（A），8,14,20-三甲基壬二甲基甲醚（B）和6,14,20-三甲基壬二甲基甲醚组成（C），而杂色T. versicolor由B和14,20-二甲基壬二甲酰基甲基醚（D）组成。在每个物种内，雌性和雄性的化学特征没有差异。我们的结果表明，这些甲基醚参与了Tetragnatha蜘蛛的物种识别。这是首次提出涉及蜘蛛物种识别的化合物的研究。