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The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration
Examining the role of color in mate choice without testing what colors the study animal is capable of seeing can lead to ill-posed hypotheses and erroneous conclusions. Here, we test the seemingly reasonable assumption that the sexually dimorphic red coloration of the male jumping spider Saitis barb...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Springer Berlin Heidelberg
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8665921/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34894274 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-021-01774-6 |
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author | Glenszczyk, Mateusz Outomuro, David Gregorič, Matjaž Kralj-Fišer, Simona Schneider, Jutta M. Nilsson, Dan-Eric Morehouse, Nathan I. Tedore, Cynthia |
author_facet | Glenszczyk, Mateusz Outomuro, David Gregorič, Matjaž Kralj-Fišer, Simona Schneider, Jutta M. Nilsson, Dan-Eric Morehouse, Nathan I. Tedore, Cynthia |
author_sort | Glenszczyk, Mateusz |
collection | PubMed |
description | Examining the role of color in mate choice without testing what colors the study animal is capable of seeing can lead to ill-posed hypotheses and erroneous conclusions. Here, we test the seemingly reasonable assumption that the sexually dimorphic red coloration of the male jumping spider Saitis barbipes is distinguishable, by females, from adjacent black color patches. Using microspectrophotometry, we find clear evidence for photoreceptor classes with maximal sensitivity in the UV (359 nm) and green (526 nm), inconclusive evidence for a photoreceptor maximally sensitive in the blue (451 nm), and no evidence for a red photoreceptor. No colored filters within the lens or retina could be found to shift green sensitivity to red. To quantify and visualize whether females may nevertheless be capable of discriminating red from black color patches, we take multispectral images of males and calculate photoreceptor excitations and color contrasts between color patches. Red patches would be, at best, barely discriminable from black, and not discriminable from a low-luminance green. Some color patches that appear achromatic to human eyes, such as beige and white, strongly absorb UV wavelengths and would appear as brighter “spider-greens” to S. barbipes than the red color patches. Unexpectedly, we discover an iridescent UV patch that contrasts strongly with the UV-absorbing surfaces dominating the rest of the spider. We propose that red and black coloration may serve identical purposes in sexual signaling, functioning to generate strong achromatic contrast with the visual background. The potential functional significance of red coloration outside of sexual signaling is discussed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00114-021-01774-6. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8665921 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86659212021-12-27 The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration Glenszczyk, Mateusz Outomuro, David Gregorič, Matjaž Kralj-Fišer, Simona Schneider, Jutta M. Nilsson, Dan-Eric Morehouse, Nathan I. Tedore, Cynthia Naturwissenschaften Original Article Examining the role of color in mate choice without testing what colors the study animal is capable of seeing can lead to ill-posed hypotheses and erroneous conclusions. Here, we test the seemingly reasonable assumption that the sexually dimorphic red coloration of the male jumping spider Saitis barbipes is distinguishable, by females, from adjacent black color patches. Using microspectrophotometry, we find clear evidence for photoreceptor classes with maximal sensitivity in the UV (359 nm) and green (526 nm), inconclusive evidence for a photoreceptor maximally sensitive in the blue (451 nm), and no evidence for a red photoreceptor. No colored filters within the lens or retina could be found to shift green sensitivity to red. To quantify and visualize whether females may nevertheless be capable of discriminating red from black color patches, we take multispectral images of males and calculate photoreceptor excitations and color contrasts between color patches. Red patches would be, at best, barely discriminable from black, and not discriminable from a low-luminance green. Some color patches that appear achromatic to human eyes, such as beige and white, strongly absorb UV wavelengths and would appear as brighter “spider-greens” to S. barbipes than the red color patches. Unexpectedly, we discover an iridescent UV patch that contrasts strongly with the UV-absorbing surfaces dominating the rest of the spider. We propose that red and black coloration may serve identical purposes in sexual signaling, functioning to generate strong achromatic contrast with the visual background. The potential functional significance of red coloration outside of sexual signaling is discussed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00114-021-01774-6. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-12-11 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8665921/ /pubmed/34894274 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-021-01774-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Original Article Glenszczyk, Mateusz Outomuro, David Gregorič, Matjaž Kralj-Fišer, Simona Schneider, Jutta M. Nilsson, Dan-Eric Morehouse, Nathan I. Tedore, Cynthia The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration |
title | The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration |
title_full | The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration |
title_fullStr | The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration |
title_full_unstemmed | The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration |
title_short | The jumping spider Saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration |
title_sort | jumping spider saitis barbipes lacks a red photoreceptor to see its own sexually dimorphic red coloration |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8665921/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34894274 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-021-01774-6 |
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