Data and code from: Plasticity of vibratory courtship in response to nuptial gift quality in male Pisaura mirabilis spiders

Oberweiser, Morgan 1 ; Hébert, Mariève1; Eberhard, Monika2

Published May 08, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ksn02v7jx

Data files

May 08, 2026 version files 1.35 MB

Abstract

Courtship is often a multimodal process involving several signals of different modalities occurring simultaneously. Male nursery web spiders (Pisaura mirabilis) perform substrate-borne vibrations while offering a nuptial gift (a nutritional donation which also serves as a visual and olfactory signal) as they court females. The nuptial gift, consisting of a prey item wrapped in silk, is a considerable investment for the male, and vibration is also likely an energetically costly signal. In this study, we investigate how these two expensive mate attraction tactics interact in order to explore how investment might be partitioned between them. We conducted behavioral experiments where male P. mirabilis were provided with nuptial gifts in three treatments—no gift, medium gift, large gift—and recorded their courtship vibrations in repeated trials (once with each nuptial gift treatment). We found that calling duration (the total amount of time spent signaling) is longer when males have a nuptial gift vs. when they do not, but the duration is not plastic in response to the mass of the gift. Pulse rate is not affected by the quality of the nuptial gift. In trials where a gift is present, only pulse interval consistency changes based on gift quality, with intervals becoming more consistent (putatively more attractive) as gifts increase in mass. Our results suggest that male spiders do adjust their investment in vibratory courtship signals at a general level, though the plasticity is slight.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Paper Citation

"Plasticity of vibrational courtship in response to nuptial gift quality in male Pisaura mirabilis spiders"
Morgan M. Oberweiser, Mariève E. Hébert, Monika J.B. Eberhard. Journal: Behavioral Ecology
Overview

Male nursery web spiders (Pisaura mirabilis) perform substrate-borne vibrations while also offering a nuptial gift as they court females. In this study, we investigate how these two expensive mate attraction tactics interact in order to explore how investment might be partitioned between them. We conducted behavioral experiments where male P. mirabilis were provided with nuptial gifts in three treatments—no gift, medium gift, large gift—and recorded their courtship vibrations in repeated trials (once with each nuptial gift treatment).

This dataset includes the raw vibrational pulse measurements (incl. pulse time, duration, interval, amplitude, and peak frequency) collected from 117 behavioral trials which each lasted around 5 minutes. We also include a processed dataset which includes metadata from the trials (male weight, leg length, BCI, treatment order, and age, as well as female ID and nuptial gift weight, size, and wrapping type) and calculated summary measurements for each trial (pulse interval CV, calling duration, pulse rate). Finally, an R code reports generalized linear mixed models which were used to analyze the processed dataset.
Originators

Morgan M. Oberweiser
Contact information

Morgan M. Oberweiser

mmoberweiser@gmail.com
Date of data collection

May 2024
Geographic location(s) of data collection

Greifswald, Germany
Information about funding sources that supported the collection and curation of the
data

DFG grant EB533/4-1 (project number 470442873)

DAAD RISE grant 57715438
DATA FILES AND VARIABLES
1. raw_pulse_data.csv
  - This dataset contains raw pulse data from 117 behavioral trials
  - This data was generated as .txt file output from Avisoft Bioacoustics software's Pulse Train Analysis feature, and appended into .csv format
    (version 5.3.1, Avisoft Bioacoustics, Glienicke/Nordbahn, Germany)
  - Methods for the Pulse Train Analysis are outlined in Oberweiser et al. (2025).
  - Each row describes one individual pulse which occured during a behavioral trial
  - There are 7 columns:
    1. trial : the behavioral trial ID, interpreted as follows:
      - Male ID-Trial number-Treatment
        
        Therefore the filename "344-1-m" describes:
        
        Male #344
        
        Trial 1 out of 3
        
        Treatment M - medium fly
    2. number : describes the number of each pulse as it occured in the recording
    3. start.time : describes the time (in s) from the beginning of the recording when the pulse began
    4. duration : describes the duration (in s) of the pulse itself
    5. interval : describes the duration (in s) from the beginning of the previous pulse to the beginning of the current pulse
      - since this measurement requires a preceeding pulse to measure against, the first pulse always has an NA value
    6. amplitude : describes the amplitude (in V) of the pulse
    7. peak.frequency : describes the peak frequency (in Hz) of the pulse
2. processed_dataset.csv
  - This dataset was processed and used for statistical analysis in the accompanying manuscript
    - raw pulse data was filtered and summarized into trial-specific measurements
      - filtering of pulse intervals was done according to the methods of the accompanying manuscript: the dataset was limited to the range of the median +/- the interquartile range
      - trial-specific measurements are summarized in the column descriptions below
    - metadata was added to describe each trial
    - each row describes one behavioral trial
    - there are 16 columns
      1. trial : the trial ID, interpreted as follows:
        
        Male ID-Trial number-Treatment
        
        Therefore the trial ID "344-2-n" describes:
        
        Male #344
        
        Trial 2 out of 3
        
        Treatment N - no nuptial gift
      2. male.ID : the unique identification number of the focal male
      3. weight : the weight (in g) of the focal male
      4. leg.length : the length (in µm) of the tibia-patella of the focal male (measured at a consistent diagonal)
      5. BCI : Body condition index of the focal male, calculated using the residuals of a linear regression of weight on leg length, after log transformations
        
        calculated according to Jakob et al. (1996)
      6. treatment.order : the order in which the focal completed the 3 treatments (treatment descriptions below)
        
        e.g.: MNL = the focal male first completed the M treatment, then the N treatment, then the L treatment
      7. age : the number of days since the focal male's final molt into adulthood
      8. female.ID : the unique identification number of the female used in the trial (4 total females were used)
      9. trial.number : the ordinal number (out of 3 total) of the focal trial
      10. treatment : the nuptial gift treatment used for the focal male in this trial
        
        N = no nuptial gift
        
        M = medium nuptial gift (Lucilia caesar fly)
        
        L = large nuptial gift (Calliphora vomitoria fly)
      11. interval.cv : the coefficient of variation of pulse intervals which occured within the focal trial
        
        as calculated according to the methods of the accompanying manuscript: pulse interval standard deviation / pulse interval mean
      12. call.duration : the total time (in s) the focal male spent signaling within the focal trial
        
        as calculated according to the methods of the accompanying manuscript: sum of all pulse interval durations (in s)
      13. rate : pulse rate (in pulses/s) that the focal male achieved during the focal trial
        
        as calculated according to the methods of the accompanying manuscript: the number of pulses measured / calling duration
      14. ng.weight : the weight (in g) of the nuptial gift used in the focal trial
        
        notice: in trials where the focal male was tested under treatment N, there is no nuptial gift, so the ng.weight = NA
      15. ng.size : the size (in mm^2) of the nuptial gift used in the focal trial
        
        as calculated according to the methods of the accompanying manuscript: area of an ellipse A = πab, where a and b are the semi-major and semi-minor axes
        
        notice: in trials where the focal male was tested under treatment N, there is no nuptial gift, so the ng.size = NA
      16. ng.wraptype : the category of wrap type assigned to the nuptial gift used in the focal trial
        
        wrap type category was assessed by eye, in with the following categories:
        
        U = unwrapped
        
        P = partially wrapped
        
        T = totally wrapped
        
        notice: in trials where the focal male was tested under treatment N, there is no nuptial gift, so the ng.wraptype = NA

CODE SCRIPTS AND WORKFLOW

Oberweiser_GLMM_code.R
- This R code includes the Generalized Linear Mixed Models used in the accompanying manuscript.
  - It utilizes the dataset described above, processed_dataset.csv
  - All reproducibility information (software and package versions) are included within the R script.
    - R version: 4.4.2 (2024-10-31 ucrt) -- "Pile of Leaves"
    - Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64
    - Package versions used:
      - MuMIn_1.48.11
      - dplyr_1.1.4
      - car_3.1-3
      - carData_3.0-5
      - DHARMa_0.4.7
      - glmmTMB_1.1.12

REFERENCES

Jakob, E. M., Marshall, S. D., & Uetz, G. W. (1996). Estimating fitness: A comparison of body condition indices. Oikos, 77(1), 61. https://doi.org/10.2307/3545585

Oberweiser, M. M., Hertel, A. G., & Eberhard, M. J. B. (2025). Variation of vibratory performance during courtship of a cursorial spider. Journal of Ethology, 43, 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-025-00855-7

Data and code from: Plasticity of vibratory courtship in response to nuptial gift quality in male Pisaura mirabilis spiders

Data files

Abstract

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