Different spider, similar signal - Identification of sex pheromone components produced by female triangulate cobweb spiders, Steatoda triangulosa

Monday, November 14, 2022

8:36 AM – 8:48 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 201

Presenting Author(s)

Jane Vurdela (she/her/hers)

Undergraduate Student
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Co-Author(s)

Andreas Fischer

PhD candidate
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
GG

Gerhard Gries

Professor
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
RG

Regine Gries

Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
NB

Nastaran Bahar

Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
SA

Santosh Alamsetti

Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Sex pheromones mediate reproductive activities in many animal taxa but have hardly been studied in spiders. Indeed, only 11 spider pheromones have been identified to date. Web-building spiders deposit sex pheromone on their webs, where they elicit courtship behaviour by prospective mates. Here, we analysed the sex pheromone of female triangulate cobweb spiders, Steatoda triangulosa. We allowed females to build their webs on bamboo frames for seven days and then extracted webs in acetonitrile. Analyses of web extracts by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) revealed three candidate pheromone components that elicited courtship equivalent to that elicited by female web extracts. As female S. triangulosa share one pheromone component each with the closely related false black widow spider, Steatoda grossa, and another with the Western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus, there is evidence that pheromone biosynthesis is conserved in these closely related spider taxa.