Effects of sex and reproductive status on the aggressiveness of jumping spiders (#643)
Personality has well studied in a wide range of animals, including spiders. It is known that animal personality is consistent across time and context. Yet how the reproductive status affects an individual’s personality remains understudied. In this study, we used Portia labiata, a spider-eating jumping spider (Araneae: Salticidae), to address this question. We found that P. labiata exhibited consistent between-individual differences across time in activity (i.e., locomotory activity), aggressiveness (i.e., conspecific intrasexual behaviour), boldness (i.e., anti-predator behaviour), and exploration (i.e., response of novel environment). However, there is an inconsistent between-individual difference in aggressiveness across sex and across reproductive status. Males in general are more aggressive than females. Virgin males are more aggressive than non-virgin males. In contrast, virgin females showed consistent level of aggressiveness across time, but once mated or when guarding eggs or newly hatched spiderlings they became more aggressive, and reduced their aggressiveness when their offspring had dispersed. We conclude that P. labiata may change some of their personality traits depending on their sex and reproductive status.