Mating behaviour and maternal care in the tropical savanna funnel-web spider Aglaoctenus lagotis Holmberg (Araneae: Lycosidae)

Abstract

Despite their abundance and diversity, Neotropical spiders have been the subject of relatively few studies of behavioural ecology. The sexual behaviour and maternal care of the spider Aglaoctenus lagotis (Lycosidae) is described here. We performed experimental manipulations to test the hypothesis that males are attracted by female cues in the web. Two predictions were tested: (a) webs used by a virgin female will attract more males than webs used by an inseminated female; (b) the main cue in the web is chemical, so webs recently used by virgin females will attract more males than those that are not recently used. Additionally, we tested the hypothesis that maternal care increases offspring survivorship. Results showed that males are attracted by recently used webs (z = 0.0015; p = 0.037; z-test) and webs of virgin females (z = 0.041; p = 0.036, z-test). Male sexual behaviour presented three different categories: court, pre-mate and mate. After the mating, the females built a cocoon that was transported adhered to the spinnerets and held by the last pair of legs. After the hatching of the eggs, the young migrated to the dorsal region of the mother's body for 5 days. During maternal care the mother eliminates a yellowish drop from its oral cavity, which is collected by the young. During the development of the young until adulthood, the offspring that have their mother present in the first stages of life have greater survival compared with those without maternal care. Our results make it possible to perform comparative analyses between a South American Lycosidae species and other species distributed worldwide.

Keywords:

• Lycosidae
• palp insertion
• haematodochal expansion
• chemical signals; food regurgitation

Acknowledgements

The authors thank to Marcelo G. Oliveira, João Vasconcellos-Neto and Natália Lerner for their criticism of early versions of the manuscript. We also thank two anonymous referees and the editor, Andrew Polaszek, for valuable comments and English review. Antonio Brescovit identified the spider. We thank the municipality of Araguari for permission to work in the JK Park. The authors are grateful for financial support from UNIPAC/FUNADESP – Universidade Presidente Antônio Carlos/Fundação Nacional do Desenvolvimento do Ensino Superior Particular (V.S.), Fapemig (E.T-P.) and CNPq/Fapemig (K.D-C.).