Acoustic Communication and Reproductive Isolation in Two Species of Wolf Spiders

Abstract

Sound production by male wolf spiders during courtship is critical for behavioral reproductive isolation of two sibling species. Females only respond to and copulate with conspecific males, and acoustic signals through a substrate are necessary to induce receptivity. No reproductive barriers that could arise during mating (such as genital or mechanical incompatibility) or after mating (infertility) are in effect between the species, since forced interspecific matings produce viable offspring.