Js. Rovner, CONSPECIFIC INTERACTIONS IN THE LYCOSID-SPIDER RABIDOSA-RABIDA - THE ROLES OF DIFFERENT SENSES, The Journal of arachnology, 24(1), 1996, pp. 16-23
The behavior of sighted and of blind male and female Rabidosa rabida p
aired in various combinations was Videotaped and analyzed. When walkin
g, neither sighted nor blind spiders could detect motionless conspecif
ics prior to contact. When motionless, blind males detected moving fem
ales at greater distances than they detected moving males. However, ne
ither sighted nor blind motionless males detected very slowly moving f
emales at any distance. These data suggested for R. rabida: (1) the ef
fectiveness of visually and vibrationally cryptic locomotion, (2) a la
ck of form vision, and (3) absence of a close-range, air-borne pheromo
ne. In both sexes, visual detection of moving conspecifics by motionle
ss spiders provided for accurate orientation responses at greater dist
ances than did mechanoreception. Nonetheless, blind females could orie
nt accurately toward courting males at close range based on vibrations
. Blind males showed courtship display when briefly contacted by anoth
er male, suggesting an inadequate chemically based sex-recognition mec
hanism. Sighted males showed courtship display after visually detectin
g a walking male, but did not do so in response to a courting male, i.
e., mutual courtship did not occur. Blind males sometimes did perform
mutual courtship, suggesting an inadequate vibratory recognition mecha
nism. Unlike salticids, these lycosids did not require vision to initi
ate either agonistic display or ritualized fighting.