'Purring' Wolf Spiders Softly Serenade Mates

by Laura Geggel, Staff Writer | May 28, 2015 11:30am ET

Male wolf spiders use "purring" vibrations to serenade their sweethearts, but this wooing only works if the females can feel these vibrations, new research finds.

For the females to feel these vibrations, the courting couple must be standing on a suitable surface that can vibrate, like dry leaves, the researchers said in the new study.

Scientists had known that wolf spiders could make airborne sounds that are audible to humans. But this group of spiders doesn't have typical ears, and it's assumed that the critters can't actually hear any airborne sounds, said Alexander Sweger, a doctoral student of biology at the University of Cincinnati, who presented the unpublished research at the Acoustical Society of America's annual meeting in Pittsburgh on May 21. [Watch Wolf Spiders Make "Purring" Vibrations (Video)]

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How spiders create the sounds of love

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News

23 May 2015 

The 'purring' reveals how the wolf spiders use the surface they are on to transmit the sound of their courtship song

Scientists have revealed the musical, flirtatious side of a common spider.

Alexander Sweger and Prof George Uetz from the University of Cincinnati recorded the percussive courtship display of the so-called purring wolf spider Gladicosa gulosa.

They played the male spiders' call to females, revealing that they used leaves to transmit sound.

They presented the findings at the Acoustical Society of America annual meeting.

The researchers think this could provide clues about the earliest evolution of sound-based communication.

When the team started their research on this North American spider species they found that the few papers that had been published on it mentioned the sound it made - a quiet "chorus of spiders" that ecologists reported hearing in the forests of the US.

Most spiders use and detect physical vibrations, sensing through their legs the presence of one another, and of prey and predators.

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More wolf spiders feasting on American toads due to invasive grass, study shows

Date:

August 27, 2014

Source:

University of Georgia

Summary:

An invasive grass species frequently found in forests has created a thriving habitat for wolf spiders, who then feed on American toads, a new study has found. Japanese stiltgrass, which was accidentally introduced to the US in the early 1900s, is one of the most pervasive invasive species. Typically found along roads and in forests, it has been found to impact native plant species, invertebrate populations and soil nutrients.

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