IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/beheco/v34y2023i5p719-728..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Peacock spiders prefer image statistics of average natural scenes over those of male ornamentation

Author

Listed:
  • Marie-Christin Hardenbicker
  • Cynthia Tedore

Abstract

The origins of preferences that drive the evolution of arbitrary sexual signals have been hotly debated for more than 150 years. An emerging but little-tested theory, efficient coding theory, proposes that male visual courtship displays are adapted to pre-existing processing biases shaped by the statistical properties of the natural environment. Natural scenes show strong spatial correlations with average amplitudes of spatial frequencies falling with an average spectral slope of –1 and humans have been shown to prefer random amplitude spectrum images that possess similar slopes. It has been proposed that other animals may also prefer the statistics of their natural environment and that this preference drives the evolution of sexual signaling displays. Here, we measure the spectral slope of the male display pattern of the Australian peacock jumping spider Maratus spicatus and test for a general preference toward that slope. We present spiders (male, female and juvenile) with random images of the male slope of –1.7 compared with: (a) a shallower slope of –1.0 and (b) a steeper slope of –2.3. Spiders spent more time oriented toward the shallower slope than toward the male slope and spent the same amount of time oriented toward the male slope and the steeper slope. Our results indicate that spiders, like humans, prefer the average natural slope of –1, suggesting that this is likely the slope typically found in their natural habitat. Rather than exploiting a potential processing bias it seems that males have evolved slopes that contrast with the visual background to enhance conspicuousness.

Suggested Citation

  • Marie-Christin Hardenbicker & Cynthia Tedore, 2023. "Peacock spiders prefer image statistics of average natural scenes over those of male ornamentation," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(5), pages 719-728.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:34:y:2023:i:5:p:719-728.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arad042
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexander N. G. Kirschel & Daniel T. Blumstein & Rachel E. Cohen & Wolfgang Buermann & Thomas B. Smith & Hans Slabbekoorn, 2009. "Birdsong tuned to the environment: green hylia song varies with elevation, tree cover, and noise," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 20(5), pages 1089-1095.
    2. Kathleen L. Prudic & Ana K. Skemp & Daniel R. Papaj, 2007. "Aposematic coloration, luminance contrast, and the benefits of conspicuousness," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 18(1), pages 41-46, January.
    3. François Mougeot & Justin R. Irvine & Linzi Seivwright & Steve M. Redpath & Stuart Piertney, 2004. "Testosterone, immunocompetence, and honest sexual signaling in male red grouse," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 15(6), pages 930-937, November.
    4. Tim Caro & Amanda Izzo & Robert C. Reiner & Hannah Walker & Theodore Stankowich, 2014. "The function of zebra stripes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, May.
    5. Cynthia Tedore & Dan-Eric Nilsson, 2019. "Avian UV vision enhances leaf surface contrasts in forest environments," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jason T Weir & Trevor D Price, 2019. "Song playbacks demonstrate slower evolution of song discrimination in birds from Amazonia than from temperate North America," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(10), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Maria E McNamara & Derek E G Briggs & Patrick J Orr & Sonja Wedmann & Heeso Noh & Hui Cao, 2011. "Fossilized Biophotonic Nanostructures Reveal the Original Colors of 47-Million-Year-Old Moths," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-8, November.
    3. Friedrich, T., 2009. "Wise exploitation – a game with a higher productivity than cooperation – transforms biological productivity into economic productivity," MPRA Paper 22862, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Dena J Clink & Tom Groves & Abdul Hamid Ahmad & Holger Klinck, 2021. "Not by the light of the moon: Investigating circadian rhythms and environmental predictors of calling in Bornean great argus," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-20, February.
    5. Amanda M Franklin & Matthew B Applegate & Sara M Lewis & Fiorenzo G Omenetto, 2017. "Stomatopods detect and assess achromatic cues in contests," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 28(5), pages 1329-1336.
    6. Pablo Vergara & Francois Mougeot & Jesús Martínez-Padilla & Fiona Leckie & Steve M. Redpath, 2012. "The condition dependence of a secondary sexual trait is stronger under high parasite infection level," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(3), pages 502-511.
    7. Ossi Nokelainen & Sanni A. Silvasti & Sharon Y. Strauss & Niklas Wahlberg & Johanna Mappes, 2024. "Predator selection on phenotypic variability of cryptic and aposematic moths," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:34:y:2023:i:5:p:719-728.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/beheco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.