Presentes nupciais em Paratrechalea ornata Carico, 2005 (Araneae; Trechaleidae) : quais os canais de sinalização reconhecidos pelas fêmeas no contexto pré-copulatório?

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2011

RESUMO

The Order Araneae is widely known for having a great variety both in terms of morphology and behavior, from which I highlight the genus Paratrechalea Carico, 2005, whose males construct a nuptial gift from a prey wrapped in silk that is offered to the female during courtship. Recent studies indicate that this gift-giving behavior in spiders represents a male mating effort, possibly acting through a mechanism of foraging motivation. However, little attention was given to the nature of the stimuli responsible for inducing female acceptance. In the present work, visual, tactile and chemical channels were isolated in a series of independent experiments through manipulation of different aspects of the nuptial gift, using P. ornata (Mello-Leitão, 1943) as a study model. The visual and tactile signal alone do not induced female acceptance while chemical signals did influenced female decision. Experiments comparing the acceptance of artificial gifts wrapped with nuptial gift silk or with silk obtained from anesthetized males allowed us to identify the silk portion as the specific location of the attractive signal. Testing the influence of different solvents over the attractiveness of the nuptial gift we showed that the chemical signal have an apolar nature. The results presented here are discussed under an evolutionary and behavioral framework related to the action of chemical signaling within the nuptial gift.

ASSUNTO(S)

paratrechalea comportamento sexual animal

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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