Visual reactions to auditory stimulus by the jumping spider Phidippus princeps (Araneae, Salticidae)

Abstract: Jumping spiders (Family Salticidae) are known for their exceptional vision, including color vision and spatial acuity. Salticids use their vision in many behaviors, including predation and courtship. Recently evidence of their ability to sense airborne vibrations, i.e. sound, was published. I used a specialized jumping-spider-specific eyetracker to study the visual reaction of the retinas of the jumping spider Phidippus princeps when exposed to the sound of a predator. I used a generic wasp sound, previously shown to induce a startle response, as stimulus and played it from different directions. The spiders showed strong reactions to the sound stimulus by large increases in retinal movement when exposed to the stimulus, and they showed no habituation to the stimulus over three rounds of exposure. However, I found no indication that the direction of retinal movement corresponded to the location of the sound source. Future experiments may examine whether spiders are primed to search for particular types of images by cross-modal cues such as sound and if they can determine the direction of a sound source.