Meeting Abstract
Sensory drive theory posits that receiver vision should play a key role in the evolution of visual signals. However, we know little about how receiver attention affects signal properties. Recent work in peafowl highlights that receivers often concentrate gaze attention on specific display features, rather than the whole display. But why do receivers look at some display areas and not others? What role do display traits play in influencing receiver gaze? We studied these questions in the jumping spider Habronattus pyrrithrix. These spiders evaluate stimuli of interest using gaze movements of their principal eyes, eyes which provide color and detail perception in an extremely limited field of view. Males also perform complex, colorful courtship displays. To ask how female gaze explores these displays, we presented females with videos of male displays and recorded gaze movements using a custom eye tracker. Color and motion aspects of the male displays were manipulated to evaluate their influence on female attention. Certain simple motion motifs may serve to keep female attention level elevated, while more energetically costly motifs direct female gaze towards specific color ornaments. The color of these ornaments appears to retain female attention once captured by movement, and may communicate male quality information. Our results show an intricate interaction between signal and sensor, and together with ongoing comparative studies will help to explain why complex animal displays adopt specific spatial and temporal architectures.
