Effects of temperature on courtship and copulatory behaviours of a wolf spider Pardosa astrigera (Araneae: Lycosidae)

Spiders possess a suit of characteristics, which play important roles in the fields of sensory modalities and sexual selection. Although the effects of temperature on spider prey-hunting, web-building, sexual signaling and habitat selection are well-documented, the effects of environmental temperature on spider courtship and copulatory behaviours are largely unexplored. In order to determine the effects of temperature on the sexual behaviours of the wolf spider Pardosa astrigera, we subjected pairs of male and female to five temperatures from 16 to 32 °C at an interval of 4 °C in a controlled laboratory conditions. Results indicated that in males most behavioural parameters, except the number of hematodochal expansions, were significantly influenced by environmental temperature. Male P. astrigera courtship latency, courtship duration, and copulatory duration declined gradually with increasing temperature within the range of 16–28 °C, whereas the number of pedipalp insertions and frequencies of both pedipalp insertions and hematodochal expansions increased gradually with temperature.