Lack of neophobic responses to color in a jumping spider that uses color cues when foraging (Habronattus pyrrithrix)

PLoS One. 2021 Jul 29;16(7):e0254865. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254865. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Chemically defended prey often advertise their toxins with bright and conspicuous colors. To understand why such colors are effective at reducing predation, we need to understand the psychology of key predators. In bird predators, there is evidence that individuals avoid novelty-including prey of novel colors (with which they have had no prior experience). Moreover, the effect of novelty is sometimes strongest for colors that are typically associated with aposematic prey (e.g., red, orange, yellow). Given these findings in the bird literature, color neophobia has been argued to be a driving force in the evolution of aposematism. However, no studies have yet asked whether invertebrate predators respond similarly to novel colors. Here, we tested whether naive lab-raised jumping spiders (Habronattus pyrrithrix) exhibit similar patterns of color neophobia to birds. Using color-manipulated living prey, we first color-exposed spiders to prey of two out of three colors (blue, green, or red), with the third color remaining novel. After this color exposure phase, we gave the spiders tests where they could choose between all three colors (two familiar, one novel). We found that H. pyrrithrix attacked novel and familiar-colored prey at equal rates with no evidence that the degree of neophobia varied by color. Moreover, we found no evidence that either prey novelty nor color (nor their interaction) had an effect on how quickly prey was attacked. We discuss these findings in the context of what is known about color neophobia in other animals and how this contributes to our understanding of aposematic signals.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Mimicry
  • Cues*
  • Predatory Behavior
  • Spiders*

Associated data

  • Dryad/10.5061/dryad.kd51c5b5z

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (IOS-1557867 and IOS-1831751 to LAT), including a Research Experiences for Undergraduates supplement that supported MLH, and by grants from the United States Department of Agriculture (Hatch project 1016166 and McIntire-Stennis project 1017978 to LAT). This work was also supported by funds from the Entomology and Nematology Department at the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.