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Spider Olfaction: Attracting, Detecting, Luring and Avoiding

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Spider Ecophysiology

Abstract

Chemical communication is very likely used by all spiders in many contexts, but we know little about the nature of the substances involved, their biosynthesis and where and how they are perceived. However, during the last decade, it became more and more obvious that the chemical communication systems in spiders are important in reproduction, prey detection, predator avoidance and even in the context of site selection. The chemical signals involved and the spider’s responses can be highly complex and plastic.

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Acknowledgements

I cordially thank Ken Haynes, Michael Schmitt and Maxene Graze for critically reading the manuscript and many colleagues for providing colour photographs of some of the treated species.

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  1. General and Systematic Zoology, Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Gabriele Uhl

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  1. Gabriele Uhl
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Correspondence to Gabriele Uhl .

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

    Wolfgang Nentwig

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Uhl, G. (2013). Spider Olfaction: Attracting, Detecting, Luring and Avoiding. In: Nentwig, W. (eds) Spider Ecophysiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33989-9_11

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