Chemical signaling in a wolf spider: a test of ethospecies discrimination

Chemical signals from female wolf spiders that elicit exploratory behavior and courtship in males are often assumed to be species-specific, but males of some species court in response to silk cues deposited by closely related heterospecific females. Such is the case with the wolf spiders Schizocosa ocreata and S. rovneri, ethospecies reproductively isolated on the basis of differences in behavioral mechanisms during courtship. We explored whether male S. ocreata and S. rovneri reciprocally discriminate species-specific chemical or mechanical cues associated with female silk by using male behavioral response as an assay. Males were exposed to stimulus treatment categories including silk, washed silk, silk extract, and appropriate controls within conspecific or heterospecific female stimulus categories. Male S. ocreata and S. rovneri did not discriminate between conspecific or heterospecific female stimuli, and courtship intensity was greatest on untreated silk. There were no differences in latency to begin courtship or in rates of courtship behaviors attributed to species origin of silk. However, silk treatment (washed silk, extract) had a significant effect on display and exploratory behaviors (e.g., chemoexplore) in both species. Methanol extraction of female silk successfully removed or inactivated a component necessary to elicit active courtship, but extraction did not significantly reduce exploratory behavior, suggesting that a separate compound may be responsible for releasing this behavior. Together, these experiments support the characterization of S. ocreata and S. rovneri as ethospecies reproductively isolated only by female discrimination of species-specific male courtship, and indicate that chemical, but not mechanical cues associated with silk are critical for eliciting male courtship in both species.