Abstract

The display repertoire of Mopsus mormon is unusually large and complex for a salticid spider. Each individual has three different mating tactics, the one used depending on the female's maturity and location. With adult females outside nests males use type 1 courtship, which seems to be a form of visual communication and includes specialized movements and postures of the legs, palps, and body. With adult females inside nests, males use type 2 courtship, which seems to be a form of non-visual communication and consists of abdomen twitching and probing with the legs on the silk; males mate with receptive females inside the nests. With subadult females, males first use type 2 courtship, then spin an adjacent silken chamber and cohabit; after the female moults and matures, they mate inside the nest. Postmount courtship is an apparently non-visual phase that precedes copulation and occurs as a component of each tactic. Females and subadults also display; the displays used in interactions depend on the sex-age classes of the spiders involved.