Meeting Abstract

83-6   14:45 - 15:00  Where, when, and who to court: ecological interactions and facial diversification of four species of syntopic paradise jumping spiders Sung, JY*; Outomuro, D; Morris, DJ; Morehouse, NI; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio; University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio sungyg@mail.uc.edu https://homepages.uc.edu/~morehonn/

During courtship, animals face the challenge of communicating their identity or status to the appropriate audience, e.g., viable, receptive mates. The costs of being misidentified can often be high, ranging from wasted energy and reproductive resources to loss of life, as seen in precopulatory sexual cannibalism in spiders. So what traits do animals rely on to communicate their species identity? In paradise jumping spiders (genus Habronattus), males flaunt colorful and distinctive species-specific facial patterns. We hypothesized that male Habronattus faces may contribute to communicating species identity, and these faces may have diversified in response to reinforcement selection. In this study, we characterized the spatiotemporal niche partitioning and male facial patterns of 4 syntopic Habronattus species. We predicted that species with less niche partitioning (i.e., higher likelihood of interspecific interactions) would exhibit greater divergence in male facial patterns. First, we evaluated niche partitioning by quantifying habitat usage, spatiotemporal distribution and overlap, and interactions of spiders at the Edge of Appalachia Nature Preserve, Ohio. Next, we quantified spider facial patterns using hyperspectral imaging techniques and recognition-based computer vision analyses. Lastly, we examined the relationship between spatiotemporal niche partitioning and facial pattern divergence in a pairwise approach amongst all four species. We discuss the results in the context of likely ecological and behavioral reproductive isolation in this syntopic community.