Chemical Communication and Contact Cuticular Compounds in Spiders

Marie Trabalon (1)

1 EthoS - Ethologie animale et humaine

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.

Mots clés: Animal Anatomy / Morphology / Histology; Animal Biochemistry; Animal Ecology; Animal Physiology; Invertebrates

Domaines: Neurosciences; Psychologie

Marie Trabalon. Chemical Communication and Contact Cuticular Compounds in Spiders. Wolfgang Nentwig (ed). Spider Ecophysiology, Springer, pp.125--140, 2013, 978-3-642-33988-2 978-3-642-33989-9. ⟨10.1007/978-3-642-33989-9_10⟩. ⟨hal-01229891⟩