Acoustic signalling in a wolf spider: can signal characteristics predict male quality?

While there has been considerable interest in female choice for male sexual signals, there have been few studies of the underlying information that di fferent aspects of the signal calls convey. Such studies, however, are esse ntial to understand the significance of signals as honest handicaps, arbitr ary Fisherian traits and/or in species recognition. We studied the somewhat exceptional system of audible drumming in the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubr ofasciata. We estimated the repeatabilities of signal components, the level s of between-male variance, the symmetry of the signal, the correlations be tween different aspects of drumming and their correlations with body weight . While in other taxa the frequency of audible signals may convey honest in formation of male size, in this species signal frequency was not related to male size and had a low repeatability. The pulse rate within each drum was highly repeatable but had a relatively small between-male coefficient of v ariation. In previous studies on this species, these traits were not import ant for male mating success. Among the traits directionally preferred by fe males, signal volume had considerable repeatability. Signal length was repe atable with high variability between males. In one population, signal lengt h and volume were positively correlated with the rate at which males produc ed the drumming signals, a trait essential for male mating success. Thus, w hile signal length may reliably indicate male quality, other signal charact eristics such as peak frequency and symmetry were not repeatable or were st atic and not related to any other male traits. (C) 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.