Vibratory communication in spiders: Adaptation and compromise at many levels

Abstract

Spiders are an exquisite choice of experimental animals for anyone interested in the vibrational sense and vibratory communication. For the vast majority of spiders, vibrations represent signals of overwhelming behavioral significance. The vibratory world spiders live in can only be adequately appreciated if we consider it in a broad biological context. Only then both the richness in adaptations and the diversity of selective pressures which must have been at work during evolution become apparent.