D3207: Effects of hemipteran defensive odors on pattern preference in jumping spider foraging

Many animals defend themselves with toxic chemicals, and use multimodal warning displays consisting of odors and bright colors to advertise their toxicity to predators. Yet, how these odors and colors work together to deter predation is not well understood. Recent work with jumping spiders in the genus Habronattus has shown that defensive odors from chemically-defended bugs trigger or increase an aversion to the color red, a color that is typically used as a warning. Here we extend this work to ask whether these defensive odors also increase avoidance of another color scheme typically used as a warning: high contrast stripes. Habronattus trimaculatus will be given the choice between three types of color manipulated termites (Reticulitermes flavipes): solid black, solid white, and black and white striped. The spiders will be randomly assigned to interact with six termites (two of each type of visual manipulation) in a petri dish “arena” with the presence of a Hemipteran defensive odor, or without any odor present. Based on previous experiments, we hypothesize that both groups of spiders will show an aversion to the striped termites, but that the aversion will be stronger in the presence of the Hemipteran defensive odor, compared with when there is no odor present. These results will be discussed broadly in the context of the evolution of multimodal prey defenses and predator prey interactions.