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Jumping Spiders (Habronattus clypeatus) Exhibit Substrate Preferences that Partially Maximize Vibration Transmission Efficiency

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Abstract

In animal taxa, the behavior of choosing a microhabitat determines the context in which individuals engage in all other behaviors and interactions. Microhabitat choice has particularly important implications for animal communication, because the successful transmission of information between individuals is highly context-dependent. Substrate-borne vibrations, which are commonly produced, detected, and used for communication by arthropods, are especially influenced by substrate choice because substrates vary widely in their vibration transmission properties. In this laboratory-based study, we examine vibration transmission properties of substrates commonly encountered in nature by the jumping spider Habronattus clypeatus and also examine whether these spiders exhibit a preference for particular substrates using a choice experiment. We predicted that spiders would prefer substrates that can better transmit vibratory signals. We found that leaf litter minimized the attenuation of vibratory signals, while rocks and sand sharply attenuated the signals. In behavioral trials, more spiders chose leaf litter or rocks as their first substrate over sand. Further, spiders spent more time on, and were more likely to jump to, leaf litter and rocks than sand. These results suggest that substrate preference by H. clypeatus partially matches the choice that would maximize signal transmission efficiency, indicating that the ability to communicate with conspecifics may influence these animals’ choice of microhabitat.

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Data and Code Availability Statement

Data and code for statistical analyses are available at https://github.com/ambikamath/habronattussubstrateuse

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Acknowledgements

We thank Cody Raiza, Benji Kessler, Sarah Cruz, Brian Whyte, Ashton Wesner, Maggie Raboin, Colette Christensen, and Christian Irian for assistance with spider collection and Breanna Jordan, Palveen Sekhon, Victor Martinez, and Trisha Daluro for spider maintenance. We sincerely thank all members in the Elias Lab for their feedback on this project.

Funding

YS was supported by the Cuiying Honors College at Lanzhou University and acknowledges the advice and support of Peihao Cong. DOE was supported by the National Science Foundation (IOS—1556421). AK was supported by the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Yuheng Sun, Erin. E. Brandt, Damian O. Elias, Malcolm Rosenthal & Ambika Kamath

  2. Cuiying Honors College, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, People’s Republic of China

    Yuheng Sun

  3. Department of Biology, Western University, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Erin. E. Brandt

  4. Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Ambika Kamath

  5. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Ambika Kamath

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  1. Yuheng Sun
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Correspondence to Ambika Kamath.

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Sun, Y., Brandt, E.E., Elias, D.O. et al. Jumping Spiders (Habronattus clypeatus) Exhibit Substrate Preferences that Partially Maximize Vibration Transmission Efficiency. J Insect Behav 34, 151–161 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-021-09777-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-021-09777-x

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