Meeting Abstract
Temperature can have wide-ranging and dramatic effects on ectothermic animals. These effects span levels of biological organization, from metabolism to interspecific interactions. As deserts have temperatures that can vary widely across temporal and spatial scales, animals living in them particularly interesting to examine in this context. However, there is a gap in knowledge in understanding how thermal microhabitats vary at the scale of the animal in question. These studies are especially lacking among small animals. In this study, we used a focal observation paradigm to investigate activity budgets, substrate use, and sex-specific differences in relevant thermal microhabitats in the jumping spider Habronattus clypeatus. We are beginning to gain a nuanced understanding of how temperature influences sexual behavior in this system, so it is especially suited to such field-based studies. We combine field data with lab experiments to explore physiological thermal limits, thermal performance data, and thermal preferences to understand the interplay between these animals’ physiological limits, preferences and the environment that they actually experience. We compare behavior, substrate use, and thermal microhabitat use between sexes and life stages, and suggest ways in which thermal microhabitat use in particular may interact with sexual behavior in this species. We suggest that variation in these aspects of thermal ecology could lead to profound downstream effects on behavior, survival, and even species persistence over time.
