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The Influence of the Age of Silk on Courtship Behavior in the Wolf Spider Schizocosa ocreata. Alyssa Farley and David Clark, Alma College, Department of Biology, Alma, Ml 48801; J. Andrew Roberts, Ohio State University--Newark, Department of EEOB, Newark, OH 43055; George W. Uetz, University of Cincinnati, Department of Biology, Cincinnati, OH 45221

The adult female wolf spider (Schizocosa ocreata) releases a dragline of silk when walking which is known to possess pheromones. These chemicals induce various courtship behaviors from the male spider when he is exposed to the silk. This study examined two things; 1) How the length of time males spent on courtship behaviors was influenced by various ages of silk; and 2) Whether or not the silk being aged outdoors or indoors made a difference on the length of time spent on courtship behaviors. For silk aged outdoors, results show a decrease in the number and duration of behaviors from time #1 (0-2 hour old silk) and times #2-5 (2-4 hours old, 4-6 hours old, and 6-8 hours old, and 24 hours old) with time #5 inducing a minimal amount of courtship behaviors for a short period of time. For data collected for silk aged indoors, in a controlled environment, there does not appear to be a decrease in male response across time periods. Taken together, these results imply that the signals from the female pheromones are weakened with age when exposed to an uncontrolled, outdoor environment.

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