Female Jumping Spiders Find Ultraviolet B Rays ‘Sexy’

A report publishing online on May 1st in the journal Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press, provides the first evidence of an animal using ultraviolet B (UVB) rays to communicate with other members of its species.

In a series of mate choice experiments with the Chinese jumping spider (Phintella vittata), the researchers found that female spiders would rather mate with males that reflect UVB than those that do not.

” It has long been recognized that solar UVB has direct deleterious effects on a wide range of living organisms; for example, it can cause skin cancer and damage the retinal tissues of the eyes of mammals,” said Daiqin Li of National University of Singapore, who is also an Adjunct Professor in Hubei University, China. “Thus, it has generally been assumed that animals are unable to sense the presumably deleterious UVB wavelengths.”

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Tags: Arachnids, Cell Press, China, Chinese Jumping Spiders, Current Biology, Hubei University, Jumping Spiders, Mating Habits, National University of Singapore, Phintella vittata, Singapore, Spiders, Ultraviolet Rays, UVB