Effects of Color and Background Contrast on Visual Responses of Eavesdropping Predators with Different Visual Capacities

SRC 2000

In animal communication, the complexity of the environment may affect signal detection as well as signal exploitation by predatory “eavesdroppers”. In this study, we examine how aspects of the sensory environment (i.e., visual background complexity and color) affect detection and recognition of courting male Schizocosa ocreata by eavesdropping predators. We examined responses of predatory spiders with varied color vision (jumping spiders vs. wolf spiders) to video playback of courting males. Results support the hypothesis that predators with different visual sensory capacities vary in response to color and contrast of prey against complex backgrounds. Color differences among prey stimuli appear to be less important than contrast for wolf spiders with dichromatic vision, while color of the prey spider matters more for jumping spiders with tetrachromatic vision.