A scanning retina with a narrow field of view: Do jumping spiders examine entire objects or only parts?

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event A scanning retina with a narrow field of view: Do jumping spiders examine entire objects or only parts? Cynthia Tedore1* and Sönke Johnsen2 1 Lund University, Biology, Sweden 2 Duke University, Biology, United States Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are famous for their principal eyes’ high visual acuity and bizarre retinal morphology. The field of view subtended by the retinae of the principal eyes is roughly 0.6 degrees horizontally by 21 degrees vertically. The retinae are capable of significant movement, presumably allowing an individual to scan and mentally piece together features of entire objects. In high-stakes situations requiring rapid reaction times, it is unclear whether salticids’ unusual retinal morphology might affect visual processing speed and/or the amount of information gathered. Because various salticid species (which prey upon each other) live in close proximity, we hypothesized that, when a male encounters another salticid and endeavors to identify it, he should minimize the time spent visually scanning over it, and in turn, his risk of being predated upon, by searching for species-specific features on the first body part he spots (i.e. either the face or the legs), and making a recognition decision based on that body part, or a small group of body parts, alone. In the presence of conspecific pheromones, which provide an additional clue as to the identity of a spider, we would expect males to be even more likely to use this visual shortcut. To test our hypotheses, we showed male Lyssomanes viridis jumping spiders animated images of conspecifics and composite images which combined the facial coloration and morphology of one sex or species with the leg coloration of another. Males’ courtship versus threat displays indicated whether a stimulus was perceived as a potential mate or threat. By comparing males’ display types and visual inspection times (as an index of confusion) in response to the various images in the presence versus absence of female pheromones, we were able to deduce whether males tend to inspect both the face and legs, or just one or the other, and whether this changes in the presence of pheromones. Counter to our predictions, we discovered that males examine features on both the face and legs before coming to a decision as to the identity of a spider, and that they continue to do so in the presence of pheromones. This suggests that salticids do take the time to visually scan over entire objects to identify them, despite the fact that quick reaction times in high-stakes encounters with other salticids would seem to be adaptive. Keywords: Vision, Chemoreception, jumping spider, Retina, field of view Conference: International Conference on Invertebrate Vision, Fjälkinge, Sweden, 1 Aug - 8 Aug, 2013. Presentation Type: Oral presentation preferred Topic: Eye design, optics and spatial vision Citation: Tedore C and Johnsen S (2019). A scanning retina with a narrow field of view: Do jumping spiders examine entire objects or only parts?. Front. Physiol. Conference Abstract: International Conference on Invertebrate Vision. doi: 10.3389/conf.fphys.2013.25.00115 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 Feb 2013; Published Online: 09 Dec 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Cynthia Tedore, Lund University, Biology, Lund, SE-221 00, Sweden, cynthia.tedore@uni-hamburg.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Cynthia Tedore Sönke Johnsen Google Cynthia Tedore Sönke Johnsen Google Scholar Cynthia Tedore Sönke Johnsen PubMed Cynthia Tedore Sönke Johnsen Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.