Research Highlights

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  • Ecology & evolution

Published online: 14 May 2008 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2008.109

Animal behaviour: Mating games

Jane Qiu

Introduction

© (2008) Elsevier

It was widely assumed that animals could not detect medium-wave ultraviolet light, also known as UVB, which has the wavelength range between 280–315 nanometres. However, a study led by Daiqin Li at Hubei University in Wuhan, China, and the National University of Singapore¹ shows that Chinese jumping spiders use UVB rays to communicate with other members of the species.

Having established that the belly and upper side of the shell of this species of jumping spiders can reflect UVB rays, the researchers went on to test whether this has a role in sexual communication by using transparent filters that specifically block UVB, its longer-wave counterpart UVA, or both.

To their surprise, female jumping spiders were more likely to pay attention to males that displayed courtship in chambers without the UVB-blocking filter. By contrast, UVA, a common cue for sexual selection in many species, does not have a role in their choice of males.

Jumping spiders are known to have uniquely complex eyes and acute eyesight, which have been attributed to the UVA-sensitive cells in their principle eyes. It remains to be seen if the spiders use a separate set of cells for the detection of UVB and whether they have a way of protecting themselves from the damaging effects of UVB radiation on many types of tissues.

The authors of this work are from:
College of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, China; Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Reference

1. Li, J. et al. UVB-based mate-choice cues used by females of the jumping spider Phintella vittata. Curr. Biol. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.04.020 (2008). | Article |