Sensory exploitation of insect face cues by courting male peacock spiders: a test using computer vision

Abstract Males use multiple tactics to capture and maintain female attention during courtship. These can include exploiting female sensory biases toward stimuli associated with foraging or shelter, as well as exploiting female anti-predatory responses. In the jumping spider genus Maratus, male courtship involves the display of complex abdominal patterning that for some species appears to mimic facial features of common jumping spider predators (eg wasps, mantids), at least to human observers. We therefore hypothesized that some Maratus species have evolved predator-mimicking courtship displays to influence female behavior early in courtship. To evaluate this, we used computer-vision and machine learning to investigate the likelihood that a simulated female Maratus viewer might misclassify a courting male’s display as a predator face. We find that of 62 species/morphs studied, 13 are consistently misclassified as predator and/or prey insect faces at rates of 20% and greater. Additionally, our results indicate that males may be more likely to be misclassified as insects during the first stage of courtship, when males are furthest from the female and viewed through her lateral eyes. Our in silico test provides initial support for the possibility that males of some Maratus species might use predator and/or prey-mimicry to exploit female sensory biases in courtship.