The frequency of injury and death during female-female aggression varies in
the jumping spider genus Portia, with interactions being more violent (lik
ely to end in death or injury of one of the combatants) in P. labiata (from
Sri Lanka) than in another two species (P. fimbriata from Australia and P,
schultzi from Kenya). To investigate the role of draglines in the assessme
nt of fighting ability, two types of tests were carried out: 1) dragline di
scrimination and 2) mirror image response (Portia's reaction to mirror imag
es is comparable to interaction with conspecific rivals). For both types of
testing, triplets of equal-size conspecific females were used: one female
(the "test spider") was exposed to draglines of two equal-size conspecific
females they had not encountered before ("donor spiders"). The fighting abi
lities of donor spiders were determined directly by staging intraspecific c
ontests between them. In dragline-discrimination tests (spider placed in pe
tri dish containing draglines from two conspecific females with different f
ighting ability), females of P. labiata, but not the other two species, avo
ided draglines of the superior fighter (i.e., they spent the majority of th
eir time on draglines of donor spiders with lesser fighting ability). For m
irror-image testing, the test spider was placed in a petri dish containing
a mirror and draglines. Each test spider was tested on two successive days,
with donor draglines in the two tests coming front conspecific females wit
h different fighting ability. In these tests, females of P. labiata (but no
t the other two species) spent less time embracing (each spider pressing it
s forelegs, palps and front of body against the other spider) and more time
in a part of the petri dish where view of the mirror was obstructed when o
n the draglines of donor spiders with greater fighting ability than when on
the other conspecific's draglines. Findings from this study suggest that P
. labiata females use signpost cues associated with draglines to assess the
relative fighting abilities of unknown opponents.