Rearing environment affects behaviour of jumping spiders

We tested the effect of rearing conditions on the behaviour of jumping spid ers, Phidippus audax. Spiders were assigned randomly to either small or lar ge cages that either were empty or contained a painted dowel. Laboratory-re ared spiders were raised from second instar to adult in these environments. Field-caught adults also were randomly assigned to these containers and we re held for approximately 4 months prior to testing. We presented spiders w ith three tests designed to examine a range of behaviours. Field-caught spi ders were more likely than laboratory-reared spiders to (1) react to videot aped prey, (2) progress further on a detour test, and (3) be less stereotac tic and more active in an open field. Larger cage size and the presence of the dowel also improved performance in several tests. Our results suggest t hat the rearing conditions we used, which are commonly employed by behaviou ral researchers, may profoundly influence the behaviour of adult spiders. ( C) 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.