Insights to the mating strategies of Habronattus americanus jumping spiders from natural behaviour and staged interactions in the wild

Abstract

We documented natural behaviour and staged intersexual interactions ofHabronattusamericanusjumping spiders in the wild in order to clarify three aspects of their mating strategies: (1) Do males invest more than females in locomotory mate search? (2) Do females exert strong mate choice? (3) Do direct contests occur among males? Males apparently invested heavily in mate search, travelling more than females yet eating nothing. Conversely, females frequently hunted and spent 10% of their time feeding. Females encountered one male per hour, likely affording them a high degree of choice among prospective mates. Accordingly, they promoted the termination of each interaction and ultimately rejected nearly all courting males. Male–male interactions were brief and did not feature direct antagonism. Our findings suggest that mate competition inH. americanusis characterized by male scramble competition for dispersed females, and that female mate choice may exert strong selection on male sexual display traits.