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Dangerous visions: a review of visual antipredator strategies in spiders

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Abstract

Many animals use visual traits as a predator defence. Understanding these visual traits from the perspective of predators is critical in generating new insights about predator–prey interactions. In this paper, we propose a novel framework to support the study of strategies that exploit the visual system of predators. With spiders as our model taxon, we contextualise these strategies using two orthogonal axes. The first axis represents strategies using different degrees of conspicuousness to avoid detection or recognition of the spider and deter predator attacks. The second axis represents the degree of honesty of the visual signal. We explore these issues with reference to the three main vision parameters: spectral sensitivity, visual acuity, and temporal resolution, as well as recent tools to study it, including multispectral digital imaging.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Federico Escobar, Nathan Morehouse and Ajay Narendra for their valuable comments on a previous version of the manuscript. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Funding

Luis Robledo-Ospina was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT-México 634812/338721) during his PhD program. This research was supported by a CONACyT Ciencia Basica grant (CB-2016-01/285529) to Dinesh Rao.

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  1. Red de Ecoetología, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Carretera antigua a Coatepec No. 351, CP 91073, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Luis E. Robledo-Ospina

  2. Instituto de Biotecnología y Ecología Aplicada, Universidad Veracruzana, Av. Culturas Veracruzanas No. 101, CP 91090, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Dinesh Rao

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  1. Luis E. Robledo-Ospina
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Both authors contributed to the conception of the study. Luis E. Robledo-Ospina wrote the first draft of the manuscript and both authors revised the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dinesh Rao.

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Robledo-Ospina, L.E., Rao, D. Dangerous visions: a review of visual antipredator strategies in spiders. Evol Ecol 36, 163–180 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-022-10156-x

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