Meeting Abstract
Our research is focused on the effects of dopamine on the behavior and individual life history strategies of Black Widow spiders (Latrodectus hesperus). We wanted to perform this experiment to further understand the effects of dopamine in different nervous systems than our own and to better see how the chemical affects individual behavior. The effects of dopamine on the behavior of certain species is well understood, from humans to certain species of insects, but little work has been done on the effects of dopamine on spiders. We compared spiders injected with a solution consisting of .03M dopamine with ones injected with a saline control and a negative control of no injection. Following injections, we then placed spiders on their webs and used a vibratory stimulus on the web to measure individual aggression level. We found that dopamine did not affect individual aggressive behavior, but dopamine injections did decrease the weight of webs. Our results thus suggest that in black widow spiders, individual aggression levels may not be regulated by dopamine; however, our results also suggest that life history strategy, which in spiders is reflected by investment in web building, may be influenced by dopamine.
