Female-biased predation risk and its differential effect on the male and female courtship behaviour of jumping spiders

Abstract

There is growing evidence that females that are engaged in mating may be more vulnerable to predation than males. This suggests that females facing a high risk of predation are less receptive to male courtship, which in turn leads males to alter their courtship behaviour. To test this hypothesis, we first determined whether predators selectively attacked females. We used a jumping spider, Jacksonoides queenslandicus, from Queensland in Australia as prey and Portia fimbriata, another species of jumping spider, as predator. We then investigated the differential effects of male and female exposure to predation risk from P. fimbriata on the courtship and mating behaviour of males within J. queenslandicus pairs. We found that when given a choice between a male and a female J. queenslandicus, P. fimbriata preferred the female. When only females were exposed to predation risk before the trials, J. queenslandicus males displayed to females for less time than the controls (in which neither the male nor the female was exposed to predators). However, when only males were exposed to the predators, they showed no significant difference in either frequency or duration of courtship display compared to the controls. This study provides evidence that the female's perception of predation risk can be at least as important as that of the male in changing male mating behaviour in J. queenslandicus. © 2006 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.