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Chemical Communication and Contact Cuticular Compounds in Spiders

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Spider Ecophysiology

Abstract

We review here spider social contact pheromones. Spider contact pheromones are typically associated with the silk, draglines or substrate, and body cuticle. The chemical composition of the cuticle, especially the lipid layer, can be used for information transfer. These substances act as releaser pheromones and are identified by the spider after contact with another animal. Behavioural observations demonstrate that chemical contact compounds are able to inhibit aggressive behaviour between conspecifics (prevent cannibalism). Different studies have shown that qualitative and/or quantitative changes in cuticular lipids could play a role in intra- and interspecific relationships in spiders. Knowledge of the function and mode of action of cuticular compounds is only fragmentary in arachnid groups. The endocrine regulation of contact pheromone synthesis is not known.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Ann Cloarec and Dr. Colette Rivault for reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Rennes 1, UMR 6552 CNRS EthoS, Rennes, France

    Marie Trabalon

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  1. Marie Trabalon
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Correspondence to Marie Trabalon .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstr. 6, Bern, 3012, Switzerland

    Wolfgang Nentwig

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Trabalon, M. (2013). Chemical Communication and Contact Cuticular Compounds in Spiders. In: Nentwig, W. (eds) Spider Ecophysiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33989-9_10

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